STORIESj^ttZ^ 
NEW TESTAMENT 
for CHILDREN: By 




Class \_ 

Book il 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



STORIES FROM THE NEW 
TESTAMENT FOR CHILDREN 




The Teaching of Jesus 



Stories from tfje 
jgeto Cesitament 

FOR CHILDREN 

BY 

ELSA BARKER 

AUTHOR OF "THE SON OF MARY BETHEL," AND " THE FROZEN GRAIL 
AND OTHER POEMS " 




NEW YORK 

DUFFIELD & COMPANY 

1911 



COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY 
DUFFIELD & COMPANY 



ZEffbOk 






CI.A297714 




TO 

MY LITTLE FRIEND 

PAUL EUGENE LLOYD 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I.— The Baby in the Stable 



II.— The Shepherds on the Hills . 
III.— The Wise Men and the Star . 
IV.— Over the Hills to Egypt . 
V.— The Little Teacher in the Temple 
VI.— The Voice Crying in the Wilderness 
VII.— Alone for Forty Days . 
VIII.— The Marriage at Cana 
IX.— Rejected By His Neighbours 
X.— The Favourite City of Jesus . 
XI.— The Sermon on the Mount . 
XII.— Stilling the Storm . 
XIII.— The Little Daughter of Jairus 
XIV.— The Messengers .... 
XV.— The Angel of the Pool . 
XVI.— John the Baptist .... 
XVII.— A Day of Miracles . 
XVIII. —The Shining Form 
XIX.— The Women Friends of Jesus 
XX.— The Enemies in Jerusalem 
XXL— The Raising of Lazarus . 
XXII. —Jesus and the Little Children 
vii 



PAGE 

1 
15 



53 
71 
83 
91 
103 
113 
127 
141 
147 
153 
159 
165 
179 
187 
195 
203 
211 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXIII.— Jesus and the Rich Young Man ... 235 

XXIV.— The Mother of James and John . . 241 

XXV.— Two Men of Jericho 247 

XXVI.— The Alabaster Box 261 

XXVII.— The Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem . 271 

XXVIII.— The Cleansing of the Temple ... 285 

XXIX.— The Master and the Questioners . . 295 

XXX.— On the Mount of Olives .... 309 

XXXI.— Judas Iscariot 321 

XXXII.— The Last Supper 335 

XXXIII.— The Garden of Gethsemane .... 351 

XXXIV.— In the Hands of His Enemies ... 361 

XXXV.— The Death of Jesus 381 

XXXVI.— The Resurrection 397 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Teaching of Jesus Frontispiece r 

FACING PAGE 

In Egypt 36 

Jesus Healing Blind Bartimaeus 252 

Bearing the Cross 382 



Stories from the New Testament 
for Children 

CHAPTER I 

THE BABY IN THE STABLE 

A long time ago, on the other side of the world, there 
lived a beautiful young girl whose name was Mary. She 
had no brothers or sisters to play with, and her parents 
were quite old when she was born. They were called 
simply Joachim and Anna, for in those days people did 
not have surnames as we have now. Long afterward 
Anna was called a great saint, and millions of men and 
women still honour her name — just because she was the 
mother of the girl Mary, whose life was so beautiful that 
even now, after nearly two thousand years, she is loved 
by the whole world. Her pictures are in half the Chris- 
tian churches ; and to this day many persons, when they 
pray to God, ask Him to answer their prayers and to give 
them what they want, "for Mary's sake." 

But when she was a young girl no one dreamed of all 
the strange and sad and wonderful things that were going 
to happen to her in after years. She was much like the 
other girls in that far-away country, except perhaps tht.t 
she was lovelier to look at, more serious and thoughtful, 
and kinder than the others were to poor people and to the 
old. 

1 



2 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

If you close your eyes, perhaps you can see her in 
imagination, in her little red dress with a blue cape 
round her shoulders, going to the village well with a 
brown earthen jar to draw water for her mother to use in 
their little home. For in those days each family did not 
have a well of their own, or draw their water from a 
faucet in the house, as we do ; but they had a large public 
well, or fountain, where all the women went for water. 
Sometimes, when they were not too busy, the girls and 
women would stand a long time together at the well, and 
tell each other all the happenings of the day and the gos- 
sip of the neighbouring villages. They had no news- 
papers then, and the people had to learn from one another 
what was going on here and there. 

And the little Mary used to help her mother with the 
spinning and the weaving, for they made all their own 
clothes, and usually the cloth of which the clothes were 
made. We may be sure, from what we learn of her in 
after life, that no girl in the village could weave a 
smoother cloth than hers, or sew a straighter seam. So 
she lived, quietly and happily like any other girl, until 
she had grown to be as tall as her mother, and was a 
young woman and no longer a little girl. 

Now these people who lived in Judaea and Galilee 
were Jews, a very ancient race whose long history you 
can read in the Old Testament of the Bible; and for 
thousands of years they had suffered a great deal from 
the people of other nations, who had made wars against 
them, and had taken away many things which really 
belonged to the Jews, and had made them pay taxes for 
the support of foreign governments and kings. And the 
hearts of the Jews were sad, for they knew how many 
ages their forefathers had been free and independent ; and 
they did not like being ruled by foreign kings, whose 



THE BABY IN THE STABLE 3 

fathers had been wild people of the woods. The Jews 
were very proud of their ancient race, and they treasured 
their old books and histories which told the stories of their 
ancestors, Abraham and Moses, King David and King 
Solomon, and Elijah the great prophet. 

Mary had learned from her father and mother, and 
from the other old men and women who often came in 
the evenings to sit in the house of Joachim and Anna, all 
the stories of her ancient race : proud stories of the times 
gone by when they were free; sad stories of the present 
time when they were ruled by the Romans, whose em- 
peror lived in the great far-away city of Rome, in the land 
which is now called Italy. And she also heard from the 
old people how the great prophets, the wise men of the 
days gone by, had said that after a long time, when 
the Jews should be sadder and more enslaved than they 
had ever been before, God Himself, whom they called 
Jehovah, would come down to the earth and be born 
as a man, a Jew, and deliver the people. And the 
deliverer who was to come, the man who would be God 
Himself, they called the Messiah- — which means the 
Christ. 

All her life Mary had heard the old people talk about 
the Christ who was to come and make the Jewish people 
once more free. When she was alone she thought of it a 
great deal. And when she grew to be a young woman, as 
tall as her mother, she used to talk about it with her 
young friends ; and they said among themselves that surely 
the happiest woman in all the world would be she who 
should become the mother of the future Christ. For 
then, as now, it was considered a beautiful and sacred 
thing to be a mother; and to be the mother of the Christ 
would be the most wonderful thing that could come to 
any woman. 



4 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Sometimes, in the evening, she would go out and 
stand in the little path before her father's house, under 
the sky, and look up at the glittering stars, the very- 
same stars which you see now when the nights are clear; 
for though the nations of the earth may rise and pass 
away, the stars have always been and always will be. 
They are eternal, like God; and, like Him, they seem to 
watch the people on the earth. And the stillness of the 
stars seemed to tell Mary and the other dwellers in Judaea 
and Galilee, as it tells us, to be patient when things go 
wrong, and to wait until God is ready to help us set them 
right. But when Mary was looking at the stars she used 
to think, more than at any other time, about the Christ 
who was to come, and about her who should be his mother. 
And sometimes she asked God that the time of his com- 
ing might be soon. But she never dared to ask God 
more than that. 

Now there lived, not far from the home of Mary and 
her parents, a man named Joseph. He was a good man, 
some years older than Mary, and he was a carpenter. 
In those days and among the Jews of Galilee, people 
were not ashamed to work with their hands. They 
thought it honourable, as it really is now; and the car- 
penter was often the most respected man in the village. 
It was so with Joseph. And when he told the parents of 
Mary that he wished to marry their daughter, they were 
glad ; for they knew that he would give her a good home 
and work hard for her, and that with him she would 
never lack the wool from which to weave the close red 
gown she liked so much to wear, and the full blue cape 
that kept her warm when the wind from the sea behind 
the hills blew cold over Galilee. 

But as Mary was still very young, her mother, the 
good Anna who afterward was called a saint, thought it 



THE BABY IN THE STABLE 5 

better to wait yet a few months before giving her daugh- 
ter in marriage to Joseph the carpenter. 

Now when Mary realised that she would soon be mar- 
ried, she began to spin and weave more busily than be- 
fore; and often, in the quiet afternoons, as she sat with 
her distaff in her hand, her thoughts went back to the 
stories she had heard about the Messiah, the Christ who 
would be born among the Jews, to make them good and 
to set them free. And as she mused thus alone at her 
peaceful work, she thought more and more about the 
happy woman, perhaps even then living somewhere in 
Galilee, a maiden like herself, who would, in the time 
which God should choose, become the mother of the 
Christ. 

And one moonlight night in spring, after she had gone 
to bed, she lay awake a long time, looking at the rays 
of blue-grey moonlight which filtered into her chamber 
through the one small window at her head. In those days 
the people of Galilee did not sleep on beds of wood or 
iron, as we do, but on mats, which they spread out each 
night upon the floor. As Mary lay there, she thought 
about the Christ who was to come. And her heart was so 
full of love for the Jewish people, her friends who suffered 
so much and still must suffer more, that her eyes filled 
with tears, and she saw the rays of blue-grey moonlight 
through a veil of water. And she asked God, more fer- 
vently than she had ever asked before, that He would 
send the Christ soon, very soon, to save the Jewish 
people. 

Suddenly her heart seemed to stand still, for there — 
in the centre of the little room and close beside her bed 
— she saw a great angel, one of those that watch forever 
near the throne of God, and sometimes come to earth to 
do God's errands, when He wants to speak with men in 



6 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

words which they can understand. The angel was all 
glittering white from head to feet, and behind his shoul- 
ders were great white wings, now folded and at rest, as 
he stood there in the middle of Mary's room, in the flood 
of blue-grey moonlight. And the angel's face was more 
beautiful than any face that Mary had ever seen before; 
it was whiter and lovelier than the lilies that blossomed 
beside the lake in Galilee. And the angel's eyes were 
deep, deep blue, like the sky after a rain, when the 
clouds are chased away and the sun comes out, and 
heaven and earth seem to be smiling at each other. And 
the angel smiled at Mary now. 

But though the angel was so beautiful and seemed so 
kind, Mary was just a little afraid; for she had never be- 
fore seen an angel, and she did not know of any one who 
had. She had read in the Bible how God's angels some- 
times came to earth to talk with wise old men ; but she 
was only a young girl — and so she was afraid. 

Then the angel, still smiling, moved nearer to Mary, 
as she lay there on her little mat ; he came so near that a 
fold of his white robe touched her hand, which was on 
the edge of the coverlet. And Mary was no more afraid, 
for she knew that the angel loved her; and though he was 
so tall and shining, she felt as if she had known him all 
her life. 

The angel spoke to Mary, and what he said was more 
wonderful than any words that man or angel ever spoke 
before; for he told Mary that God had chosen her to be 
the mother of the Christ who was to come. He said that 
in a few short months she would hold him in her arms, a 
little baby, her own baby. 

And the angel told Mary that God was pleased with 
her, and that she should name her baby Jesus ; that he 
should be called God's son, and that there should never 



THE BABY IN THE STABLE 7 

be an end to the kingdom which he would establish on 
the earth. 

When Mary had prayed to God that He would send 
Christ soon to the world, she had never dared to pray for 
this ! She was so happy and so full of wonder at the 
message which the angel brought, that she forgot to 
thank him for bringing it. She could only whisper her 
gladness and her willingness to do anything God wanted; 
and she looked at the angel, and looked, and looked. 
She knew she was not dreaming, that she was wide awake. 
And she knew that the angel was real ; though as he stood 
there in the blue-grey moonlight, his form, instead of 
casting a shadow behind him on the floor, cast a circle of 
radiance all around. He seemed to shine with his own 
light. 

Then, after a little while, though she was still looking 
at the place where he had stood, she could not see him 
any longer. The angel had vanished. She did not even 
see him raise his broad white wings before he flew away. 
A moment before he had been there beside her, and now 
he was not there. But the whole room was filled with a 
delicious perfume, like the scent from a garden full of 
roses when the wind blows. Mary was so happy that she 
could not go to sleep all night; and when the grey dawn 
came in through the window, she was still lying there 
with her eyes wide open, looking at the spot where the 
mysterious visitor had stood. 

The next day she could not spin or weave. When she 
took the earthen jar to the village well for water, the 
other girls who were there asked Mary what had happened 
to her, because she looked so beautiful and her eyes were 
shining so. But she did not tell them what had hap- 
pened. 

Now Mary had a cousin named Elizabeth, whom she 



8 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

much loved. Elizabeth was older than Mary; she was 
married, and lived with her husband in a village not far 
from Jerusalem. For many days Mary had not been able 
to think of anything but the great message which the angel 
had brought to her; and though she could not speak 
about it to the girls in Galilee, she wanted to tell her 
cousin Elizabeth that God had chosen her to be the mother 
of the Christ who was going to be born. It happened 
that some people she knew were going to Jerusalem about 
that time, and Mary went along with them. There were 
no railroads in those days, and they walked over the hills 
and through the valleys, stopping to rest at night in a 
tent which they carried with them on the back of a gen- 
tle, large-eyed mule. 

When Mary reached her cousin's house, Elizabeth was 
very glad to see her. The two sat down together, hand 
in hand, and when Mary had told her cousin the wonder- 
ful news, Elizabeth said, "Blessed art thou among 
women" ! 

And Elizabeth told Mary how happy she was that the 
future mother of her Lord had come to visit her; and 
now, she said, all the great things which the prophets 
had foretold for the Jews would really happen. 

Mary answered that she loved God, and wanted to be 
worthy of the gift which He was going to send her. It 
was because her heart was so full of inexpressible things 
that she spoke so simply. 

She made her cousin a long visit, of about three 
months; and during all that time the two talked much 
together about the Christ who was coming to Mary as a 
little baby, and whose name should be called Jesus. And 
Mary told Elizabethan about Joseph, the carpenter, whom 
she was going to marry after she went home to Galilee. 
And when the visit was over, and another party of Mary's 



THE BABY IN THE STABLE 9 

friends came to take her back to her home, Elizabeth 
kissed her on both cheeks and told her, for perhaps the 
hundredth time, that she was blessed among women. 

Soon after Mary reached home she was married to 
Joseph the carpenter, and went to live in his house. 
Joseph knew how the angel had come down from heaven 
to tell Mary about the Christ who was going to be born, 
for one night in a dream an angel had also come to him 
and had told him the whole wonderful story. And he 
was very kind and tender with Mary, who was now his 
wife. When she was sad, he cheered her with long 
stories about the kings and prophets of the olden time; 
for Mary was still quite young, and she enjoyed hearing 
stories now almost as well as when she was a child. 
During the warm summer evenings she and Joseph used 
to wander hand in hand through the fields around the lit- 
tle village of Nazareth, which was their home ; and when 
the quiet stars came out in the sky, Joseph would tell 
Mary other stories, which he had learned from the 
Koman people who lived in Judaea, stories about the 
strange gods of the Romans that were named after the 
stars, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. But though Mary 
loved the stars, she always enjoyed the Jewish stories 
best; for in so many of them there was some hint about 
the Christ who was to come. 

When the winter came on, and the wind blew cold 
over the hills, and the wool of the sheep grew thick and 
long to shelter them from the storms, the people in Naza- 
reth heard news which troubled them much. Caesar 
Augustus, Emperor of the Romans, who now ruled the 
country, sent out an order that all the Jews should be 
taxed; that is, that the people who had already been 
obliged to pay so much money to the Romans, would 
have to pay still more this year. And the Roman rulers 



10 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ordered that every man among the Jews should go at a 
certain time to the town where he was born, in order that 
the tax-collectors might know just where each family be- 
longed, and take what is called a census. So Joseph, 
who had been born in Bethlehem, a city of Judaea about 
seventy miles south of Nazareth, was obliged to go there 
and pay his tax. And though Mary was sad at the 
thought of taking such a long journey in the cold of win- 
ter, she went with her husband. 

One morning in December they set out from Nazareth 
together. As Joseph had only one donkey, he placed Mary 
on its back, wrapped in her warm blue cape, and himself 
walked beside her the whole of the long way. There were 
many hills to climb, and the back of the donkey was not 
a comfortable seat; but Mary did not complain, for she 
knew that Joseph always felt very sad when she was not 
happy, because he loved her so much. So she made be- 
lieve to enjoy the long ride over the rough roads and up 
and down the hills; though sometimes she was so tired 
that she nearly fell off the back of the donkey. She 
pointed out to her husband all the pretty places along the 
way, the orchards of apricot- trees, the green Aleppo pines 
that grow even to this day in Judaea, and here and there, 
standing solitary and august upon a hill top, a giant 
cedar of Lebanon. 

When they reached Bethlehem, Mary was really tired. 
But when they went to the inn, the only hotel in the little 
city, they found that every room was full. There was a 
great crowd of travellers there, who had come, like them- 
selves, to pay their taxes to the Romans. There was not 
a square foot of space for them in the whole house. 

But the innkeeper, who was a kind man, felt sorry for 
Mary ; and he told Joseph that, if they wanted to, they 
could sleep that night in the stable. So they went out 



THE BABY IN THE STABLE 11 

there into the cold stable, among the cows, the oxen, and 
the sheep. Mary had always before had a comfortable 
place to sleep, even though her people were poor; and 
when she saw the stable of the inn where they would have 
to stay that night, she was so discouraged that she would 
have cried — if she had not known that her tears would 
make Joseph so sad. So she smiled at him, and said 
that the stable was really quite homelike. They had a 
lantern, which they had brought to light them on the 
way, and Joseph hung it up on a wooden peg against the 
wall. It did not give much light; but it was better than 
nothing. And there were so many cows and oxen in the 
stable that their warm breath took away the chill of the 
bare place. 

Joseph unstrapped their blankets from the back of the 
donkey, on which Mary had ridden; he spread a lot of 
straw on the floor of the stable to make a bed for her, and 
placed the blankets on the straw. Then he blew out the 
lantern, and they lay down to rest. After a while every- 
thing grew very still. There was no sound in all the 
place except the regular breathing of the sleeping oxen 
and the cows, and now and then a little clicking noise 
when the hoof of an ox fell against the floor, as he moved 
in his sleep. There was a sweet smell of hay in the sta- 
ble, and here and there, through a chink in the stone 
walls, a ray of starlight filtered in. But Mary did not 
fall asleep. 

It was twelve o'clock, the very middle of the night, 
when the wonderful thing happened. The baby, the Christ 
whose name was to be called Jesus, suddenly came to 
them — right there in the stable. 

Perhaps an angel brought him, perhaps the same 
angel who had told Mary he was coming — I do not know. 
Anyway, Mary found him there beside her. He was 



12 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

little, and warm, and sweet. Now every mother thinks 
her baby is the most wonderful thing in the world; but 
we can understand why Mary knew that hers was. 
When she first felt his breath against her face, she was so 
happy that it seemed to her that she would fly right away 
to God, with the baby in her arms. She forgot that she 
was lying on the floor of a cold stable, among the cattle; 
she forgot everything except her baby. 

Joseph took down the lantern from the peg in the 
wall, he lighted it, and brought it to Mary. In the pale, 
glimmering light the baby's face shone like a star, and 
it seemed to Mary that all round him was a radiance far 
brighter than the light of the lantern. Before she looked 
at him, when she had felt his warm little body against 
her, she had only known that he was her own baby; but 
when she saw his face she realised all that the angel had 
told her, all that the old prophets had said about him — 
that this little baby was really God Himself, who had 
come down to the world to make the people good. 

And now that Mary had seen the baby's face, though 
she was even happier than she had been a moment before, 
she no longer wanted to fly away to God with the baby in 
her arms. For with the coming of the little Jesus, who 
was God, and who loved the world so much, there came 
to her also a great love for the world — for all the world 
and everybody in it. She felt as if she could take them 
all in her arms, the rich and the poor, the good people 
and the bad people, the old ones and the little children. 
She had never dreamed that she could love them so much ; 
but how could she help it — she who was now the mother 
oi Jesus? 

Beside the bed where Mary lay there was a little low 
manger, a sort of box which was filled with hay for cows 
to eat. And Mary wrapped the little Jesus in swaddling 



THE BABY IN THE STABLE 13 

clothes — long strips of cloth that poor people in those 
days always used in which to wrap their new-born babies 
— and she laid him beside her in the manger. And there, 
among the cows and oxen, who came to sniff at him with 
their soft warm noses, the baby went to sleep. 

And once again it grew still in the stable, and the 
cows and oxen drew long breaths of drowsy content, and 
through the chinks in the stone wall the rays of starlight 
filtered in and seemed to lie in pools of silver on the 
floor. And the little Jesus slept sweetly in the manger 
beside his mother. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 

On the night when the little Jesus was born in the 
stable at Bethlehem of Judaea, there were three shepherds 
who tended their flocks of sheep on the hills beyond the 
city. They were plain, simple men, with rough clothing 
and rough voices; but their hearts were warm and gentle. 
They loved the sheep, and from having watched the sheep 
so long as they grazed peacefully upon the hills, the shep- 
herds had themselves become almost as quiet and slow- 
moving as the flocks they guarded. 

Usually, when the sun went down in the evening, and 
the shades of night settled over the hills, and the sheep, 
weary with grazing, laid themselves down to sleep, the 
shepherds spread their blankets on the ground and went 
to rest beside the flocks. For in the morning, when the 
sun rose, the sheep would be awake and moving; and the 
shepherds also must be up and alert with the first coming 
of the daylight, that the flocks might not wander away 
from them and be lost. 

But on the night when Jesus was born, though the 
shepherds had laid themselves down at the usual time, 
they could not sleep. They were restless, and moved 
from side to side. Then they lay a long time with their 
eyes wide open, looking at a very brilliant star in the 
sky, which had moved up slowly from the east until it 
seemed to stand right over Bethlehem. And they won- 
dered what the star meant; for in the lands of the Far 
15 



16 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

East the stars mean much to the people, and they believe 
that they can read in the moving planets what is going to 
happen on the earth. 

In the middle of that night the shepherds, being 
unable to sleep, got up and built a little fire of sticks and 
brushwood, for it was cold. They had shivered in their 
blankets, lying there on the ground. But as they gathered 
round the brushwood fire, and held out their hands to the 
blazing warmth, they felt as comfortable and happy and 
wide-awake as they had ever felt in the middle of the day. 
And sitting round the fire, they told each other stories 
from the ancient histories of the Jewish people; for shep- 
herds are like children in their hearts, and they love 
stories. 

At the close of a long narrative which one of them 
had been telling the others, they noticed that the hills 
and fields all round them were shining with a brilliant 
light. They would have thought the sun was going to 
rise, if they had not seen a few minutes before the stars 
of midnight ; for the shepherds could tell, from the places 
in the sky where the constellations stood, what hour of 
the night it was. When the shepherds saw the brilliant 
light, they could not imagine what it meant. They 
thought something terrible was going to happen, and they 
were afraid. 

Suddenly they saw a great angel standing before them. 
His face and garments were all shining. He was so near 
them that the hem of his robe lay right in the blazing 
brushwood — but it did not catch fire! When the shep- 
herds saw the angel they were still more afraid. They 
jumped up from the ground; they huddled together, 
holding each other by the arms, and their teeth chattered 
so that they could not speak. One of them, in leaping 
to his feet, had kicked over a drinking-cup ; and as it 



THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 17 

clattered against the stones the sound seemed to them 
like the rattle of thunder — which shows how frightened 
they really were. 

Then the angel spoke. He told them not to be 
afraid; that he brought them tidings of great joy, which 
should be for all the people in the world. For this 
night, the angel said, there had been born in the city of 
David a Saviour for the Jews, who should be called 
Christ the Lord. The city of David was a name which 
the Jews had for Bethlehem; and when the angel said 
that, the shepherds knew that he meant the little city 
right beside them, whose buildings they could see in the 
starlight. 

And the angel told the shepherds that when they 
found a new-born baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and 
lying in a manger, they would know it was the little 
Christ, whom God had sent to save the world. The 
swaddling clothes and the manger should be to them a 
sign, the angel said. 

Then suddenly there appeared with the angel who was 
talking to the shepherds, a great company of other 
angels. Some of them looked like men, only they had 
shining garments and two broad wings behind their 
shoulders ; these were the angels who sometimes walk on 
earth and do God's errands with men. Others were just 
winged heads, with faces like those of children, and no 
bodies at all; these were the cherubim, who sing always 
round the throne of God, and rejoice when little children 
are born upon the earth. Others had wonderful, rapt 
faces, and six long wings, which as they rested there in 
the air before the shepherds were folded round their 
bodies like a garment; these were the seraphim, who love 
God all the time and think of Him so much that they 
cannot sing, but are always silent. 



18 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The angels were so many that they filled the whole 
eastern sky, right up to the place where the big star 
shone overhead. And as they rested there in the heavens, 
the shepherds heard them praising their Creator, and 
singing: 

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
good- will toward men. ' ' 

Then quickly, at a signal from the first angel who 
stood nearest the shepherds, with the edge of his long 
garment trailing in the brushwood fire, the whole host of 
angelic beings rose right up into the sky, up and up, 
until they disappeared. And the shepherds were left 
standing alone in the field, beside the dying fire; and the 
sheep, which had been awakened by the singing of the 
angels, were huddled together on a little knoll, with their 
small eyes wide and shining, as if they also understood 
that something strange had happened to the world. 

Now when the angels were gone away, the shepherds 
said to each other : 

"Let us go down into the city of Bethlehem, now, 
this very hour, and see for ourselves this marvel which 
the Lord has sent His angels to tell us about. Let us 
look for the child who has been born, the child who shall 
be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger; 
for when we find a baby like that, we shall know he is 
the little Christ." 

The shepherds left the sheep alone in the field and 
started for the city. They had never before left their 
flocks unguarded; but then, nothing like thib had ever 
happened before — either to them or to any other shepherds. 
They trusted that God, who had sent the angel, would 
watch the sheep for them while they were away. 

When they reached the city of Bethlehem they went 
straight to the inn. Being themselves shepherds, it was 



THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 19 

natural that they should go first to the stable where the 
sheep and other cattle were. Of course they did not know 
that Joseph and Mary were inside; but they thought that 
the man who tended the sheep and the cows of the inn- 
keeper might be sleeping there. 

They found a big door, made of boards, on one side 
of the stable. It was not fastened on the inside, and they 
opened it very slowly and carefully, so as not to awaken 
too suddenly the man whom they thought might be sleep- 
ing there. They left the door wide open; and as the 
three shepherds stood in the doorway, that brilliant star 
which they had seen shone right into the stable. 

In the light from the star they saw, over on the oppo- 
site side, the little low manger in which you will remem- 
ber that Mary the mother had placed the new-born Jesus. 
The shepherds could see from the door that something 
was lying in the manger; but they could not make out 
exactly what it was, so they moved forward. After a few 
steps they came to the place where Joseph and Mary 
were lying in their blankets on the straw-littered floor. 
They had both awakened. 

Then the shepherds told Joseph and Mary that they 
were looking for a baby; that an angel had come to them 
out in the fields and told them that one had been born in 
Bethlehem that night. They had come to find it. 

Now all mothers delight in showing their babies; for 
it seems to them that every one must love the tiny crea- 
tures. So Mary put out her hand toward the manger 
where the little Jesus was lying, and told the men that 
they might come and look at him. The brilliant star 
which shone into the stable made it almost as light as 
day. 

The three men leaned eagerly forward. They were 
tall and strong and brawny, and wore rough coats made 



20 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

of sheepskin with the wool outside. One of them had a 
drinking-cup slung over his shoulder by a leather strap, 
and the two others had the leather pouches in which 
shepherds used to carry nuts and dates and other food, 
slung over their shoulders in the same way. They all 
had long, rough beards; their faces were tanned from 
years of exposure to the sun and wind; but their eyes 
were very soft and tender as they looked down at the 
little Jesus lying there in the manger, wrapped in swad- 
dling clothes — just as the angel had said they would 
find him. 

Now the shepherds had been so astonished at the 
appearance of the angels in the field, a little while before, 
that they were ready to accept any other wonderful thing 
which might happen. So they were not surprised to see 
a bright light all round the head of the little Jesus. And 
they bowed themselves down before the baby, as before a 
sacred thing. 

While they were standing there by the manger, with 
their heads bowed, the baby awoke. Perhaps the light 
from the star shone in his face too brightly. As the little 
Jesus opened his eyes, the shepherds caught their breath ; 
for the eyes were not those of a little baby — they were 
clear and full of intelligence. No one had ever before 
looked at the three shepherds in the same way as this 
new-born child looked at them. Though the eyes were so 
gentle and full of love, they seemed to see everything that 
was in the hearts of the men — all their hidden thoughts. 
And the men began to be very sorry for all the wrong 
things they had ever done in their lives, and they told 
themselves that never again would they do anything that 
could make the little Jesus sorry if he knew about it. 

The shepherds did not stay in the stable very long, 
for it was still nighttime, and they thought the little 



THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 21 

Jesus and his mother ought to sleep. Though they 
wanted to stay, they were afraid it might be selfish of 
them to keep the Holy Family awake any longer. So, 
after a long last look at the baby, they said good-by and 
went out, closing the door of the stable behind them. 

Then the shepherds went a little distance away and 
sat down on a big flat rock, the three of them, and talked 
it all over. They reminded each other of the sayings of 
the ancient prophets, that some day a Saviour should be 
born among the Jews. They were happy, and just a 
little proud, that they had been the very first strangers 
to see the little baby who was going to do such great 
things when he grew up. They recounted their ages, and 
wondered if they would live long enough to see him when 
he should be a man. As God had been so kind as to send 
His angel to them with the first news, perhaps He would 
let them live to see still greater things — if they were 
good, and took faithful care of the sheep, and did not get 
angry about trifles. 

As the three shepherds sat there on the big flat rock, 
the sun came up behind the hills. It seemed to them 
that the little city of Bethlehem had never looked so 
pretty, not even in the summertime, as it looked that 
winter morning after Jesus was born. Would Jesus 
'make the whole world beautiful to everybody, they won- 
dered, when he should grow to be a man? 

When the sun was up, and people began to move 
about in the city, the shepherds left the rock where 
they had been sitting and went around among the houses, 
telling everybody they met about the beautiful baby that 
had been born the night before in the stable of the inn. 
And they told their friends that the little Jesus was really 
the Christ who had come to save the Jews, for had not 
the angel said so? Now some of the people were much 



22 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

pleased to hear the glad news ; but most of the men and 
women whom the shepherds told about the angel did not 
believe a word of it — they said the three men had been 
dreaming. But the shepherds knew that they had not 
been dreaming. 



CHAPTER III 

THE WISE MEN AND THE STAE 

A little while before Jesus was born in the stable at 
Bethlehem, there were three wise men who lived in one of 
the strange countries lying east of the land of the Jews. 
These wise men of the East in olden times were called 
Magi. They knew many things which ordinary people 
did not know, for they had given their whole lives to 
study. They could sometimes tell, just by looking at 
a man, what was going to happen to him by and by. 
They knew many things about herbs and medicines, and 
why one herb made a man well while another made him 
sick or killed him. They knew the meaning of dreams. 
And, most wonderful of all, they understood the stars, 
which in those days were believed to have a strong 
influence upon the people of the earth. These Magi 
could tell, by the constellation which was rising in the 
east at the time when a child was born, what sort of man 
he would be, and what he would look like. And if there 
was any star right overhead at the moment of a child's 
birth, they could tell, from their knowledge of that star, 
what business or profession the child would follow when 
he grew to be a man, and whether he would be lucky or 
unlucky. 

Many people in the Far East, in Babylonia and 

Assyria and Persia, had not been taught to pray to God 

as we do; they believed that what was written in the stars 

would have to happen anyway. So they had a great re- 

23 



24 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

spect for their wise men who claimed to understand such 
things. What their ancient prophets had been to the 
Jewish people, these wise men were to the people of the 
East; and whenever they said that anything was true, 
nobody dared to dispute them. 

One night in the early winter of the year when Christ 
was born, the three wise men, in their own far country, 
were together on the flat roof of a palace, where they had 
come to study the stars. As they stood there side by 
side on the roof they looked very tall and strange, in 
their long robes embroidered with symbols : the Signs of 
the Zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and so on; and other 
signs which meant the planets — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, 
the sun, the moon, Venus and Mercury. Any one who 
should dress like that in these days would be considered 
very queer ; but in the olden times the wise men robed 
themselves in strange garments, that every one who saw 
them might know how wise they were; for the Magi knew 
the meaning of these marks on their clothes, and others 
did not. 

As the three Magi stood there on the flat roof of the 
palace, they saw something which surprised them much. 
In the eastern sky, right before them, was a big star 
which they had never seen before. Now you will remem- 
ber that the shepherds, who tended their flocks on the 
hills near Bethlehem, had seen this same star and won- 
dered what it meant. The Magi also wondered. But 
they were not afraid, as the shepherds had been. For 
the wise men of the East believed that when a brilliant 
star, like that, appeared suddenly in the sky, it meant 
that some great man was going to be born. 

Now the Magi were indeed very wise; and one of the 
strange things they knew was which Sign of the Zodiac 
was supposed to rule the various countries of the earth. 



THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 25 

And because they had seen the star in the East in that 
part of the heavens which ruled the land of Judsea, ac- 
cording to their reckoning, they decided that a great man 
was going to be born right away in the country of the 
Jews. 

So, after taking a good look at the star, and counsel- 
ling together, they went down the stairway which led 
from the roof to the lower rooms of the palace, and began 
to get ready for the long journey to Judsea. 

It seemed to them that the appearance of so bright a 
star must mean the birth of a great king; so they deter- 
mined to go straight to the palace of King Herod at Jeru- 
salem. Even the Magi, the wisest of men, never thought 
of looking for a baby king in a stable. They supposed 
that a son had been born to King Herod, of course. Now 
in those days it was the custom for men who came to 
visit new-born princes, to bring them handsome presents ; 
so the three wise men, who were almost kings themselves 
so high was their position, took each a rich casket and 
rilled it with beautiful gifts for the little King of the 
Jews, as they called him. Then they put in their travel- 
ling sacks such other things as they would want on the 
journey, including books and scrolls covered with queer 
marks, which stood for the planets and the Signs of the 
Zodiac; for they expected to figure out in that strange 
way all the great things which were to happen to the lit- 
tle king when he grew up. 

Then they called for their camels, the tall, grotesque 
animals which the people of the Far East often use instead 
of horses, because the camels can go so far without get- 
ting tired, and need so little to eat and drink by the way. 
The three camels were ordered to kneel down; the sacks 
containing the presents for the baby, the scrolls and other 
things, were fastened to their sides ; then each of the Magi 



26 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

took his seat on the top of the big hump in the middle of 
his camel's back; at a signal the camels rose clumsily to 
their feet, wailing and grumbling in camel language, and 
the wise men were on their way. 

They had not even waited for daylight, for the stars 
made the way quite plain, and they were in a great hurry 
to reach the far-off palace of King Herod. They would 
have made an interesting picture, had there been any one 
to see them, the three men in their long garments, mounted 
high on the backs of the tall camels, which swayed grace- 
fully from side to side as they padded on. Can we not 
see them in imagination, rising slowly up and over the 
ridge of a hill, outlined against the grey morning sky? 

They had many adventures and terrible hardships by 
the way; for in those days there were few roads, and 
those very bad, and there was always danger from robbers. 
When at last they reached Jerusalem, King Herod was 
very glad to see them ; for the kings of that time all had 
a great respect for wise men — which is not always so in 
our day. 

But when the Magi said : ' ' Where is he that is born 
King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the East 
and are come to worship him, ' ' Herod was much trou- 
bled. No little son had been born to him in his palace; 
and if one had been born somewhere else — one whose 
coming the star foretold — it needs must be some child of 
another family, who would take the throne away from 
Herod. No wonder he was distressed. 

So the King called together all the old priests, and 
the scribes who kept the sacred books and told the people 
what they meant, and the King asked them where the 
prophets had said that the Christ should be born. King 
Herod had also seen the star in the East; and though he 
ought to have been glad, he was not glad at all. He did 



THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 27 

not want anybody but himself to be King of the Jews — 
not even the promised Messiah. 

When Herod asked the assembled priests and scribes 
where the old books declared that Christ should be born, 
with one accord they answered : " In Bethlehem of Judsea. ' ' 

Then the King sent for the three Magi, who had come 
from the East on their camels, led by the star. He pre- 
tended to be very glad that Christ was born at last, and 
he told the wise men to go to Bethlehem and search for 
the young child, and when they had found him, to come 
back to Jerusalem and let him know, that he also might 
go and worship the infant Christ. But Herod really 
meant to kill the little Jesus, and not to worship him. 

The three wise men again mounted their camels, tak- 
ing with them the presents they had brought, and started 
for Bethlehem. It was night when they came to the city 
where the little Jesus was, and the great star shone in the 
sky. 

They went first to the inn, and asked the people there 
if they knew anything about a child who had been born. 
Of course the people in the inn were much interested in 
the little Jesus out in the stable, because of the strange 
story which the shepherds had told about the angels 
which had appeared to them in the field on the night of 
his birth, singing : ' ' Glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace, good-will toward men." They told the 
wise men all they had heard. And the Magi went to the 
stable, with the presents for the baby in beautiful rich 
boxes which they carried in their hands. 

Now when the Magi left their own far country, they 
had only supposed, from the star in the East, that a 
powerful king was to be born in Judaea; but when they 
had learned from King Herod and the priests in Jeru- 
salem that the great Messiah of the Jews was expected to 



28 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

be born in Bethlehem, they were more than ever anxious 
to see the wonderful little baby. Had they not been so 
wise, they would have been surprised to learn that the 
Christ had been born in a stable; but they remembered 
that King David, who wrote the most beautiful songs in 
all the world, had been only a shepherd boy when he was 
young. 

As the three Magi went along the path to the stable, a 
little black dog came out and barked at them; and all 
the people of the inn looked after them with great curios- 
ity, for they had never before seen any one who wore gar- 
ments like those of the Magi, covered with such marks 
and symbols. Even the High Priest at Jerusalem, when 
dressed for a great ceremony, was a less imposing figure. 
The wise men from the East created a sensation in the 
little town of Bethlehem. 

Joseph was standing in the door of the stable looking 
up at the stars when the three Magi came down the path. 
His heart was very full of love that night, and he had 
been wondering why God had chosen him to take care of 
the little Jesus and to be a father to him. Was he good 
enough and wise enough — he, only a simple carpenter of 
Nazareth? When he saw the wise men, Joseph caught 
his breath, for he had never beheld anything so splendid. 
He wondered who the visitors could be. 

He invited them to enter, just as if the stable had 
been a beautiful house; and the three wise men came in, 
among the cows, the oxen, and the sheep. The one lan- 
tern did not give much light, but the stars were bril- 
liant that night, and the middle of the stable seemed 
almost as bright as in the daytime, though in the corners 
were dark shadows, from which the eyes of the cows 
shone out. 

When the Magi saw the mother and the baby Jesus, 



THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 29 

they fell down on their knees before them, saying strange 
words in their own foreign language, which neither Joseph 
nor Mary could understand; but they supposed that the 
men were saying prayers. 

Mary looked very pretty, as she sat there with the 
baby in her arms. Around her shoulders was the bright 
blue cape ; her dark hair lay in little curls all round her 
face, her eyes were bright with happiness, and on her 
face was that sweet mother-look which little children love 
to see — and older people as well. The wise men thought 
they had never seen any woman who looked so much like 
a queen. 

The eyes of the baby Jesus were wide open, though it 
was so late at night. He seemed to understand why these 
strangers had come to visit him. And, little as he was, 
it seemed to all of them that he smiled, when the Magi 
held out to him the gifts which they had brought — gold, 
frankincense, and myrrh. For the Magi, who were so 
wise and who knew the. meanings of things, gave the little 
Jesus gold to mean that he was a king. They gave him 
frankincense to mean that he was holy, for frankincense 
was the sweet gum which the priests burned in the temples 
before the altar, and which gave out so sweet a smell. 
And they gave him myrrh, a resin found on certain trees 
and shrubs in Arabia and Abyssinia and which was used 
for medicine, to mean that, though he was Christ himself 
and came from God, he was nevertheless a human being, 
and would have to suffer much while he stayed upon the 
earth, and that some time he would have to die. 

The reason why we give each other Christmas presents 
now is because the Magi gave those presents to the little 
Jesus, and our Christmas is the anniversary of his birth. 

Joseph and Mary did not have any rich food to offer 
their noble guests, so they gave them each a cup of cool, 



30 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

sweet milk, fresh from one of the cows. And the Magi 
thought they had never drunk anything so delicious in 
all their lives. Then the four men, the Magi and Joseph, 
sat down on the straw beside Mary and the little Jesus. 
Though the wise men had murmured their worship of 
Christ in the strange tongue of their own far country, yet 
they knew the language of Joseph and Mary very well ; 
and they sat with them a long time, telling stories of 
Persia, Arabia, and Abyssinia, and other distant lands. 
And they explained to Joseph and Mary the meanings of 
the strange marks which were embroidered on their gar- 
ments, the symbols which stood for the sun, the moon, 
the planets, and the Signs of the Zodiac. And the Magi 
also told the meaning of other figures which were em- 
broidered on the breast of their robes, marks which they 
had themselves learned in Egypt, the far southern land of 
the river Nile, the Pyramids and the Sphinx. 

When Mary said to the wise men that Egypt must be 
a wonderful country, and that she would like to go there 
some time, they answered that perhaps she would have her 
wish — very soon. It did not seem probable to Mary, who 
had never in all her life been more than seventy miles 
away from home ; but she knew that these men were wise, 
and if they said that she might go to Egypt some day — 
why, she was ready to believe it. So many things had 
happened to her in the last year, that almost anything 
seemed possible for the future. 

Before they went away, the Magi learned from Joseph 
and Mary the exact time when the little Jesus was born, 
for they meant to figure out, by their knowledge of the 
stars, what was going to happen to him in after life. 
Then they said good-by, bowed themselves once again be- 
fore the baby Christ, and walked with slow and stately 
steps out of the stable. They found the three camels 



THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 31 

lying down in the yard, peacefully resting. Each man 
climbed on the top of his camel's big hump; they gave 
the sharp, peculiar cry which in camel language means 
"get up," the camels rose clumsily to their feet, com- 
plaining as usual, and in a few minutes the three mysteri- 
ous figures disappeared down the long stony road which 
led to Jerusalem. 

But after going a little way, they turned sharply 
toward the East, and went over the mountains which 
separate Bethlehem from the wilderness of Judsea. For 
the night before they had been warned by God in a dream 
that they were not to return to the palace of King Herod 
at Jerusalem, as the King had asked them, to give him 
news of the baby Christ. God told the wise men in the 
dream that Herod was plotting to kill the little Jesus, so 
that he might never become the King of the Jews, as the 
old prophets had foretold. 

They rode straight on for the rest of the night and all 
the next day; then they pitched their tent and sat them- 
selves down around the camp-fire to figure out together, 
from their knowledge of the stars, what was going to hap- 
pen to the little Jesus when he grew up. They were 
smiling when they began their work; but as the minutes 
went by, their faces became very grave and sad. For 
they saw that the beautiful child whom they had left in 
the stable at Bethlehem was going to have much trouble. 
But they also saw that he would become the most famous 
being in the world, and the best, and that for ages after 
his death millions of people would call themselves his 
friends and followers. 

The next morning the three wise men mounted their 
camels again, and rode on toward that mysterious land of 
the East from whence they had come. And they were 
never seen in Judsea any more. 



CHAPTER IV 

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 

After the three wise men had ridden away on their 
camels, leaving Joseph, Mary, and the little Jesus in the 
stable at Bethlehem, the Holy Family went to sleep; for 
the hour was late, and they were weary with much talk- 
ing. In his sleep that night Joseph had a dream. 

It seemed that an angel of God came and stood beside 
him, and pointing to Mary and the little Jesus, the angel 
told Joseph to take the young child and his mother and 
flee into Egypt — that strange land which the Magi had 
told them about the evening before. And the angel also 
said to Joseph in the dream, that he should stay in Egypt 
until God sent him word to come away; because King 
Herod wanted to kill the little Jesus, and it was not safe 
for them in Judaea. 

When Joseph awoke in the morning he was much 
troubled about his dream. He knew that he would have 
to do what God said, because God had trusted him with 
the care of the wonderful baby and his mother. But the 
land of Egypt was very far away, it was then winter, and 
Joseph was a poor man. He wondered how they would 
be able to get food in that strange, far-off country, even 
if they should succeed in reaching there at all. He sup- 
posed that the people in Egypt spoke a different language 
to theirs. The wise men had told him about the great 
Pyramids down there, which were made of solid stone, 
and were so high that a man standing at the bottom and 



34 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

looking up their sloping sides, felt himself no larger 
than a fly. Joseph was a good carpenter, perhaps the 
best in Galilee; but would the people of Egypt be willing 
to pay him for the kind of work that he could do? He 
knew, of course, that the people of Egypt did not live in 
Pyramids. Perhaps they did not even build them any 
more; for the Magi had said that the great Pyramids 
were very, very old. 

But, even more than he dreaded the strange life in 
Egypt, Joseph dreaded the journey there. He did not 
even know exactly how far it was; but surely it must be 
four or five hundred miles ; and they had only the one 
donkey, on which Mary had ridden down to Bethlehem 
from their home in Galilee. Joseph supposed that he 
himself would have to walk the whole of the long way to 
Egypt. And how would they get milk on the way? Per- 
haps he had better buy a goat, and take it along with 
them. He supposed that he could buy one in Bethlehem, 
and wondered how much it would cost. 

He went outside the stable in the grey morning light, 
and sitting down on a flat stone he counted over his 
money. It was not very much. And it never occurred 
to him that he could use any of the gold which the Magi 
had brought to Jesus. No journey that we could possi- 
bly imagine, in these days of railroads and great steam- 
ships, would seem so hard an undertaking as that winter 
journey from Bethlehem to Egypt which the angel had 
commanded them to take. 

When Joseph went back into the stable, Mary the 
mother was awake. She smiled at him cheerfully, and 
pointing to the little Jesus, who was lying asleep in the 
manger beside her, she whispered : 

' ' How beautiful he is ! " 

Joseph bent over and kissed the sleeping child, then 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 35 

he sat down on the straw beside Mary and told her about 
his dream. He had supposed she would be terribly dis- 
tressed. He had even been afraid that she would cry, 
though he had never seen her shed a tear before, no mat- 
ter what happened. But she was still very young, and 
he knew how much she loved the hills and fields of peace- 
ful Galilee, which was their home. 

How great was his surprise when Mary, instead of 
saying she was sorry, just clapped her hands with joy, 
and said: 

"Now we shall see that wonderful country which the 
Magi told us about last night. Don't you remember 
how, when I said I wou4d like to go there, one of them 
answered that perhaps I would have my wish — very 
soon?" 

Joseph did remember. And Mary was so cheerful 
that he soon forgot how troubled he had been. When he 
asked her if she was not afraid that something would 
happen to the little Jesus along the way, she smiled and 
said: 

"God will take care of him." 

Joseph could not say no to this ; and as soon as they 
had had their breakfast, he went out into the little streets 
of Bethlehem to look for a goat to furnish them with milk 
on the way to Egypt. He found a good one, which a 
man was willing to sell him for very little money; and he 
soon came back to Mary in the stable, leading the goat by 
a string. If the baby Jesus had been a little older, he 
would have found the goat a charming playfellow; but he 
was still too small to play. The goat, however, went 
right over to the manger where the little Jesus was, and 
lay down beside him. This pleased the mother very 
much, for it seemed to her that even animals knew by 
instinct how lovely her baby was. 



36 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

They started for Egypt in the night-time, and did not 
tell anybody where they were going; for they knew that 
King Herod would be furious when he learned that they 
had left Bethlehem. And they were afraid he might send 
somebody after them, if he knew where they were going, 
and kill the little Jesus on the way. 

By the pale light of the stars they came out of the 
stable, closing the door softly after them. Joseph 
strapped their blankets on the back of the donkey, to 
make a soft cushion for Mary. He lifted her onto the 
donkey's back, and put the little Jesus in her arms. 
Then they started, Joseph walking beside the donkey. 
He did not have to lead the goat now, for the animal had 
taken such a fancy to the little Jesus that she would have 
followed him anywhere. You know this was a nanny- 
goat — the kind that give delicious milk. 

When they reached the hill beyond the town, they 
stopped and turned for one last look at the dear little city 
of Bethlehem, where their baby had been born, and where 
so many other things had happened to them. They did 
not know if they would ever see it again. 

We are told that they went across the hilly country of 
Judsea to the city of Joppa, and from thence along the 
coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Joseph was probably 
afraid that they would lose their way if they did not fol- 
low the seacoast, which curves around toward Egypt. 
Perhaps, if you look at the map of Syria in your geog- 
raphy, you can see the way they went. 

We are told that sometimes, when they came to a 
point where two roads met, and they did not know which 
road to take, the angel which had come to Joseph in the 
dream appeared suddenly before them, pointing out the 
right way. 

We are also told that one day, when they had gone 




In Egypt 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 37 

into a thick forest, all the trees bowed their heads to the 
little Jesus — all except the aspen-tree, which stood up 
very stiff and proud, and would not bend its head. Then 
God said some strong words to the proud aspen-tree; 
and the tree was so frightened that it began to tremble, 
so that its leaves could be seen quivering all over it. 
And that, according to the old story, is the reason why 
the leaves of the aspen-tree (which is a kind of poplar) 
are always quivering even to this day. 

Now at that time there were in Judsea many bands of 
robbers, wild men who lived by stealing things; and 
Joseph and Mary were afraid that some night when they 
were asleep, a company of these bold robbers would try to 
steal their donkey and their nanny-goat. So on those 
nights — and there were many of them — when they were 
not near any village, but had to sleep under the open 
sky, in the fields, they always made the donkey and the 
nanny-goat lie down close beside them. This the little 
goat liked very much, and she would nestle her cold nose 
against Mary's arm, near the head of the sleeping Jesus. 
They were so kind to the little goat that she considered 
herself quite like one of the family. And when, some 
days, they had to travel a long way and over rough roads, 
the nanny-goat did not lag behind a bit; but just trotted 
right along beside them, as if she understood that Egypt 
was still a long way off, and that they had to hurry. 

Of course there was always the greater danger that 
robbers might fall upon them and kill them, and carry 
away the gold which the Magi had given to the little 
Jesus ; but they could not believe that God would let that 
happen. 

One night, when they were lying out under the stars, 
Mary had a strange dream. It seemed to her, in the 
dream, that they were still travelling on, just as they had 



38 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

been all through the day; and that in the air all round 
them, and among the leaves of the trees beside the road, 
were hundreds of children's faces — little frightened faces, 
with wide eyes and quivering lips. When Mary awoke it 
was still night. She was so troubled by the dream that 
she awoke her husband, and told him all about it. They 
wondered what it meant; for in those days people had 
great faith in dreams, and always thought that they 
meant something. 

This one had a very deep meaning, as you will see. 
For when the three Magi did not return to King Herod at 
Jerusalem, as he had told them to, Herod was enraged. 
He thought the wise men mocked at him. So he sent 
out his soldiers, with orders to kill all the little children 
in Bethlehem and the places round about — all the little 
children who were less than two years old; for he thought 
by that wicked order to make sure of killing Jesus. As 
you know, Jesus and his family were now far away from 
Bethlehem, and out of the reach of Herod; but all the 
mothers of young children in that country were broken- 
hearted. The old stories tell us that hundreds of little 
ones were destroyed, that not one was spared who was 
less than two years old. And that was the meaning of 
Mary's strange dream — the meaning of the mass of little 
frightened faces she had seen, in the air all round her and 
among the leaves of the trees beside the road. 

The Holy Family went on and on, day after day. 
Several weeks had passed since they left Bethlehem; for 
the donkey did not go very fast, and it was a long, long 
way. After a time they left the seacoast and travelled in- 
land, for they wanted to go to that part of Egypt where 
the Sphinx and the great Pyramids were. They had to 
cross rivers and go around lakes; and sometimes they 
were obliged to walk for a day or two along the bank of a 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 39 

stream, before they could find a place shallow enough for 
them to cross, or find a boatman who would row them 
over to the western side. 

As they went farther south it grew slowly warmer and 
warmer, and they began to see more palm-trees and fewer 
pines. Sometimes there were no trees or hills at all, just 
level stretches of grey sand, in which the donkey sank 
half way to his knees as he walked slowly on, with Mary 
and the little Jesus on his back. 

It was well on in the month of February when they 
came to the broad desert east of the Nile. Here a real 
grief met them ; for they found they would be obliged to 
have camels to carry them the rest of the way. The 
faithful donkey had to be left behind. The little nanny- 
goat was so tired from the long journey that she gave 
hardly any milk, and they had not the heart to make her 
follow them any farther. They found a man with kind 
eyes who gave them two camels, in exchange for the don- 
key, the nanny-goat, and a little gold. This man also 
taught them how to guide the camels ; and Joseph, who 
was now very weary from having walked so far, was glad 
of a chance to ride. 

Now a camel is so tall that he has to lie down in order 
to let any one get on his back. The first time Mary got 
on the back of her camel, she was half-f rightened ; and 
when the great animal rose clumsily to his feet, she 
thought he was going to pitch her over his head. Mary 
was not frightened for herself; but she had the little Jesus 
in her arms, and she was always afraid he might be 
hurt. It was not the camel's fault that he was so clumsy 
in getting on to his feet ; for he did not know how to get 
up in any other way. With his long legs and queer, 
humped body, he did the best he could. 

Mary had not the heart to bid good-by to the faithful 



40 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

donkey and the little nanny-goat; she just motioned to 
the kind-eyed man to take them away out of her sight. 
She could not speak to the man, because she did not 
know his language; but the man of the desert also loved 
animals, and he understood her. 

They did not get far that day. If you have never rid- 
den on the back of a camel, you do not know how hard it 
is at first. The steady, rocking motion makes some per- 
sons feel quite sick. Before they stopped for the night, 
Mary was so tired that she would have wished herself 
back in Bethlehem — if it had not been for the danger 
which there threatened the little Jesus, from the hatred of 
Herod, the wicked King. 

Perhaps, if the camels had not been over the road be- 
fore, and found their own way by instinct across the 
desert to the river Nile, Joseph and Mary would never 
have reached there. If it had not been for the position 
of the sun, which always rises in the east and sets in the 
west, no matter where we are, they would sometimes 
have seemed quite turned round. After a few days they 
grew fond of their clumsy camels, and they also became 
accustomed to the rocking motion of the camels' backs. 

These strange animals seemed to smell fresh water a 
long way off; and no matter how grey and lifeless the 
desert looked ahead of the travellers, sooner or later their 
long-legged companions would bring them to a place 
where there was cool, pure water and a grove of palm- 
trees. Some persons may believe that camels are stupid 
creatures and could not find their way like that; but per- 
haps the angel which had appeared to Joseph in the dream 
and told him to take Mary and the little Jesus down to 
this far land, guided the camels also. I do not know. 

One day they came to a place so strange that Mary- 
thought she must be dreaming. They found themselves 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 41 

on the edge of a forest, with great trees — many of them a 
hundred feet in length and three feet thick, some lying on 
the ground, some leaning against each other. The trees 
were brown and black and shining; but what surprised 
Joseph and Mary so much, was to see that all these trees 
were made of stone. Travellers in Egypt go to this place 
now, and call it the petrified forest; but Joseph and Mary 
had never heard of it before. Surely Egypt was a strange 
land! 

They got down from the camels' backs and came and 
touched the trees with their hands, to make sure that 
they had seen aright. Yes, these trees Were solid stone. 
They knew that the great stone Pyramids and the Sphinx 
had been made by human hands ; but here was something 
which they thought was quite as wonderful, and made by 
God Himself. Mary wished that the little Jesus were big 
enough to see and understand what a strange place he 
was in! 

They once more climbed on the camels' backs, and 
in a little while they found themselves on the top of a 
range of hills. The camels stopped of their own accord, 
and Joseph and Mary caught their breath in surprise and 
admiration; for there, spread out before them, was the 
valley of the river Nile. They were facing the west, 
where the sun was just going down in a blaze of red and 
gold. At the foot of the hill whereon they rested was a 
little city; beyond it flowed the broad blue waters of the 
river Nile, quiet, majestic, bearing on its bosom many 
little boats with three-cornered sails, which made them 
look like birds, flying over the water. And, farther west, 
beyond the river, on the edge of the immeasurable desert, 
they saw the great three-cornered Pyramids, grey, vast, 
mysterious, their tops now reddened and gilded by the 
rays of the setting sun. 



42 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Resting there on the backs of their camels, on the top 
of that ridge of hills, with the river Nile and the Pyra- 
mids before them, Joseph and Mary knew that their long 
and toilsome journey was at an end. They realised that 
God had brought them safely to the far-off land where He 
had told them to go; and they thanked Him for His care 
and guidance. They thanked Him also that He had 
made the world so beautiful and so large, and that He was 
now letting them see the most wonderful part of it — the 
land of Egypt, where the Jewish Joseph, son of Jacob, 
had been sold into bondage thousands of years ago; the 
river Nile, beside whose waters, in a thicket of bulrushes, 
the cradle of the Jewish baby Moses had been hidden, 
to save him from the wrath of the King of Egypt. 
As Mary thought of the little Moses and of how he had 
been saved, she hugged the little Jesus still closer to her 
breast, and prayed that God would guard him also forever 
from the wrath of the King of the Jews — even as He had 
guarded Moses from that other King. 

The land of Egypt was a land of great interest for the 
young Jewish woman, Mary. All her life she had heard 
stories of this country, and now she was really here! She 
wondered if Moses himself had not sometimes stood on 
the top of this very hill, and looked down upon the waters 
of the Nile and the great Pyramids, thousands of years 
ago. She was not quite sure whether the Pyramids had 
been built before the time of Moses, or afterward; for in her 
short life she had not had time to learn everything — though 
God had found her wise enough to be the mother of Jesus. 

Joseph and Mary rested there on their camels, looking 
down at the valley of the Nile, while the sunset sky 
turned slowly from red to gold, from gold to white, and 
the twilight shadows drew near. Then they hurried 
down to the little city by the edge of the river. 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 43 

They found a small temple, in a grove of sycamore- 
trees, and there they rested that first night. If you 
should ever go to Egypt and should visit Old Cairo, the 
guides will show you a little church, very ancient, where 
the Holy Family are said to have lived during the first 
few weeks of their sojourn in the land of Egypt. The 
church itself was not built then; but the crypt — that is, 
the part below the surface of the ground — is very, very 
old; and it is interesting to stand in that crypt, and to 
realise that perhaps the baby voice of Jesus once echoed 
along those old stone vaults, as our voices echo now. 

Her first few days in Egypt were days of wonder for 
Mary. Everything was so different to Galilee, where she 
had lived all her life before. The Egyptians were an 
interesting people, with their dark faces and brilliant 
black eyes ; and Mary soon learned that they also, like the 
Jews, were ruled over by the Romans. The poor people 
lived in huts made of mud, which had been baked in the 
sun. Around these huts were always groups of little 
brown Egyptian children, some of them with hardly any 
clothes, others in scanty garments of red and yellow and 
pink. 

She never tired of looking at the broad blue river, the 
fields of vivid green clover, the brilliant poppy fields, and 
the tall palm-trees — which looked like long-handled feather 
dusters as they waved against the sky. At the twilight 
hour she loved to watch the herdsmen driving home their 
flocks and herds of cattle to the little village; but, best of 
all, she loved to listen to the songs of the boatmen on the 
Nile. They were not like any songs she had ever heard 
before; they seemed to be the voice of the homesickness 
of all the ages. 

The Egyptians worshipped the river Nile. They 
thought it was a god, and prayed to it, as they did also 



44 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

to the sun, which was another of their gods. This seemed 
strange to Joseph and Mary, who had always prayed to 
Jehovah, and they could not understand how the Egyp- 
tians felt about such things. Their dark-skinned neigh- 
bours also believed that a goddess, whom they called 
Hathor, dwelt in the sycamore-tree. Now the temple 
where Joseph and Mary and the little Jesus lived was sur- 
rounded by sycamore-trees; they were very beautiful, with 
their mottled bark of pale green and violet-grey; but it 
seemed foolish — even wicked — to worship them. And 
strangest of all to this Jewish family was the adoration 
which the Egyptians gave to certain animals, cows^ croco- 
diles, and even cats and beetles. They did not worship 
all these animals, but special ones which they kept in 
the temples. 

Then, too, the Egyptians did not bury their dead 
friends, but made them into mummies. These mummies 
were just dried dead bodies, preserved in some peculiar 
way unknown to us. The faces were often covered with 
gold, and the bodies were wound round and round and 
round with cloths. For the Egyptians believed that the 
souls of the dead would some time come back to the earth 
and want their bodies again. They put these mummies 
in tombs made of stone, often cut into the solid rock ; and 
with the mummies they placed a quantity of little things 
which they thought their friends might need in heaven — 
dishes, jewelry, and other ornaments — and even little 
images of men, made of glazed blue earthenware, which 
they believed would come to life in heaven and act as 
servants to the people who were dead. Do you wonder 
that the Egyptians, with these queer beliefs and customs, 
seemed very strange indeed to Joseph and Mary? 

But the great event of their sojourn in Egypt was 
their visit to the great Pyramids and the Sphinx, across 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 45 

the river Nile. From their first day in Egypt they had 
wanted to go there. Mary was always thinking of what 
the three Magi, the wise men from the East, had told her 
about the Pyramids and the Sphinx, that wonderful night 
when they had come to see the baby Jesus, in his manger 
at Bethlehem. She wished that ^the Magi, in their far- 
away home, could know that she was here in Egypt now; 
for though they were so wise, and seemed so rich and 
powerful, Mary knew that they loved the little Jesus, and 
that made her feel that they were her own friends. 

One afternoon, when the sky seemed bluer than ever, 
the sun brighter, and the wonderful air of Egypt more 
life-giving and pure, the Holy Family started for the 
Pyramids, Joseph carrying the little Jesus in his arms. 
They found an Egyptian boatman who was willing to take 
them across the river, in one of those boats with three- 
cornered sails which had seemed to them like birds flying 
over the water, that first day when they had rested on 
their camels at the top of the hill and had gazed down at 
the Nile. As the boat went skimming over the broad 
waters, Mary thought of the Jordan, the little river of 
Galilee, her home. It seemed very small to her in com- 
parison with this great stream; as small as the little 
tombs of Galilee compared with the great Pyramids yon- 
der, which you know are also tombs — built ages ago to 
contain the mummies of ancient kings of Egypt. 

In those days there were no guides to show people 
around the Pyramids, as there are now. Silent and alone 
they stood, amid the wastes of the grey desert, their 
solitude disturbed only now and then by a passing camel 
train, or by the whistling wind with its burden of whirl- 
ing sand. 

The Holy Family had landed a little to the north of 
the Pyramids. The Egyptian boatman did not follow 



46 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

them, but waited with his little craft beside the river. 
By motions they had made him understand what they 
wanted. The Pyramids are at some distance from the 
Nile, and Joseph and Mary had to walk. As they went 
slowly over the shifting sand toward the greatest of the 
Pyramids, it seemed to grow larger and larger. The 
Magi had told them in Bethlehem that one hundred thou- 
sand men had worked for twenty years to build this giant 
mass of stone; but as they came gradually nearer, it 
seemed to them impossible that human hands could ever 
have built it. Each of its four sides is nearly an eighth 
of a mile long, eight hundred and twenty feet, and the 
sides slope upward toward the pointed top. Joseph and 
Mary stood at the bottom and looked up. It made them 
dizzy. 

"Oh, that the little Jesus were large enough to see and 
understand ! ' ' said Mary to her husband. 

It seemed to her that the baby in Joseph's arms smiled 
up at the Pyramid — though he was really too young to 
smile. But mothers love to imagine such things. 

They walked round to the other side of the great Pyra- 
mid, and stood looking toward the other two, which lie in 
a straight line to the southwest. They still wondered if 
Moses had been here; but they had not been able to ask 
the Egyptians, because they could not yet speak their 
language. 

And now, after nearly two thousand years, the de- 
scendants of those Egyptian people love and follow Jesus 
— that same Jesus who was too little even to smile at their 
Pyramids, the first time he saw them. 

Mary and Joseph wandered around until they came to 
the Sphinx, the great stone monster sixty-six feet high, 
with the head of a man and the body of a lion, which lies 
there on the desert sand, facing the east and the Nile. 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 47 

Mary climbed up between the stone paws of the monster, 
and sat down there with the little Jesus in her arms. 
She also looked far away, like the Sphinx, toward the 
east and the river Nile. She thought of the thousands 
of years which had passed slowly, one by one, since first 
the Sphinx had stood upon these sands. She thought of 
the millions of men who had been born and who had died 
in that long time, each joying in the sunshine, each 
doing the little work which God allotted him, then going 
back to the silence from which he came. And then she 
thought of the baby in her arms, her little Jesus whom 
the angel had told her was the great Messiah of the Jews, 
whose coming the prophets had foretold. What would he 
do when he should be a man? Though she knew that he 
was God's own son, and that he would transform the 
world when he grew up, he was now just her own little 
baby. It was hard for her to realise how great he was, 
though it was natural for her to think him the most won- 
derful creature ever born. 

The Jewish man and woman remained beside the 
Sphinx until the grey desert was all wrapt in the greyer 
shadows of the night. One by one they saw the little stars 
come out twinkling in the sky. And then, after a while, 
the great round silvery moon rose over the eastern hills 
beyond the Nile river, and all the desert world was 
touched with magic. The Pyramids, which had been grey 
a little while before, were now deep blue in the moonlight. 

Joseph and Mary walked a short way to the south, and 
turning, looked back at the Sphinx, lying there long and 
motionless upon the sand. In some strange way they 
could not understand, the moonlight seemed to bring the 
Sphinx to life, and over the face of the stone monster a 
faint smile seemed to flicker. The sight made Mary's 
heart beat fast, and she clung to the arm of Joseph. The 



48 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

little Jesus, who had been asleep, moved in her arms, as 
if he also felt that something unusual was happening. 
Mary asked herself if the Sphinx was smiling with glad- 
ness because the Christ had come. Of course this strange 
appearance was only the effect of the moonlight; but in 
those days the imagination of men and women was more 
vivid than now. When they saw anything unusual, they 
took it as a sign from God. 

After a time they turned their backs upon the great 
stone forms of the desert, and walked down to the river, 
where the Egyptian boatman who had brought them over 
still waited for them upon the shore. As they drew 
nearer they heard him singing to himself and to the Nile 
— perhaps the very song which the boatmen used to sing 
thousands of years ago, when the Pyramids were being 
built; for things change slowly in the land of Egypt, and 
yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow seem to be all one hour 
in the life of God. 

Sitting quietly in the little boat, under its three-cor- 
nered sail, they flew lightly back over the water, which 
rippled and glimmered in the moonlight. They seemed 
to be sailing straight toward the heart of the moon, which 
made a path of silver across the water before them. Of 
all the beautiful hours of Mary's life, this hour upon the 
moonlight bosom of the Nile seemed to her most beauti- 
ful — except for that one hour, in the stable at Bethlehem, 
when the little Jesus had come to her and she had first 
looked into his face. She was so happy that she thought 
she would like to sail right on and on forever, along that 
silvery pathway, toward the heart of the moon. 

But in a few minutes they reached the other shore. 
And the Egyptian boatman, when they offered him a 
piece of silver for taking them across the river, shook his 
head, and would not accept it. He pointed toward the 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 49 

little Jesus, as if he meant that they should keep the sil- 
ver for him. 

They went back to the temple where they lived, and 
that night Mary had a dream. She dreamed that the 
baby Jesus was grown to be a man, tall and strong and 
beautiful, and that she was walking over the desert sands 
with him, toward the great Pyramids on the other side of 
the Nile. And she dreamed that, as they passed the 
Sphinx, the monster bent its head and kissed with its 
stony lips the hand of her son, Jesus the Christ. It 
seemed so real that when she awoke and found herself in 
the little temple, with the baby Jesus on her arm, she 
could hardly realise for a moment that it had been all a 
dream. But the Jews believed that dreams always came 
true, in spirit if not in fact; and Mary knew then that 
some time, in the far-away future, the people of Egypt 
would love and follow Jesus. 

For several years Joseph and Mary continued to live 
in the city on the bank of the river Nile. They did not 
live in the temple all this time, but had a little house 
of their own, which Joseph built himself. As the long 
months passed slowly by, they came to understand the 
language of the Egyptian people around them ; and the 
good Joseph found much work to do, and was able to 
support his family in comfort, without touching the gold 
which the three wise men from the East had given to the 
little Jesus, in the stable at Bethlehem. 

Mary learned from the Egyptian women how to weave 
the mats of rushes on which the people slept, and how to 
make many other useful and beautiful things. And the 
Holy Family were content with their life in Egypt; they 
were not homesick for Galilee, and were willing to stay 
here just as long as God wanted them to stay. You re- 
member that the angel had told Joseph in the dream 



50 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

that God would send him word when it was time to re- 
turn home. 

And the dear baby Jesus grew and thrived in the 
Egyptian sunshine. He was now no longer wrapped in 
swaddling clothes, but had little dresses, white and 
pretty, which his mother embroidered with her own 
hands. In a few months he was able to stand on his feet, 
and then to take a few steps, guided by his mother, who 
would never leave him out of her sight — so much she 
loved him. 

She had been charmed by the cooing and crooning of 
his babyhood; but the hour when his little lips first 
formed the name of Mother, was a wonderful hour for 
Mary. When Joseph came home that evening from 
his day's work, she ran to him to tell the joyous news 
that the baby Jesus had really called her Mother ! Joseph 
was almost as happy as she that night, and they sat a 
long time beside the bed of the sleeping child, hand in 
hand, talking over their plans for teaching him all the 
beautiful stories of the Jews, and many other things — 
when he should be older. 

A few days later the little Jesus spoke the name of 
God, for he had heard his parents speak that name so 
often. Mary wondered if it was wrong of her to be so 
happy that he had said the name of Mother even before 
that of God? For, however great he was, was he not first 
of all her own baby? And she felt that God would for- 
give her. 

When Jesus was a little older he began to play with 
the Egyptian children, and so he learned to speak their 
language also. Though he was the smallest of all the 
little ones who used to play around the door of Joseph 
and Mary, yet he always led in the games, and all the 
dark-skinned children followed him and did just what he 



OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 51 

wished. The Egyptian mothers were not jealous that he 
was more beautiful than their children; for they loved 
him, too. 

Now Jesus had a little kitten to play with ; and Mary 
was much troubled one day when the Egyptian women, 
who, as I have told you, worshipped animals, declared to 
her that the kitten was a god, and wanted to take it away 
for worship in the temple. But she would not let them, 
because the little Jesus loved it so much. Already, as 
Mary told Joseph, Jesus was teaching the Egyptians not 
to worship animals — but to love them and be kind to 
them. 

One day, when he was still a small child, they took 
him in a boat across the river Nile, to see the Pyramids 
and the Sphinx. Mary told him that he must remember 
these things all his life. But she did not tell him about 
her dream, that the Sphinx had bent and kissed his hand 
— for he was still too young to understand. 

One night after they had been living in Egypt a long 
time, the angel which had appeared to Joseph in the 
dream in Bethlehem years before, and had told him to 
bring Mary and the infant Jesus down to Egypt — the same 
angel appeared to Joseph again, in another dream, and 
said that the time had now come for them to return to 
the Jewish land. 

Jesus was now old enough to understand where they 
were going, and he was delighted at the thought of the 
journey. He called together all his little Egyptian play- 
mates, and told them that he was going far away and 
might never see them again. We may be sure they 
cried, these little dark-skinned children, at the thought of 
losing the wonderful boy. Perhaps he cried a little, too 
— for the tears of his friends meant much to Jesus, always. 
That is one reason why we love him. 



52 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

But at last they mounted the camels again, the young 
Jesus riding in front of his mother, and started back over 
the hills and through the petrified forest and across the 
desert toward Judaea. 



CHAPTER V 

THE LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 

Joseph and Mary, with the young Jesus, had ridden out 
of Egypt on their camels ; but when, after long weeks of 
travelling, they came to the borders of their own country, 
they sold the great, long-legged, humpbacked animals, 
and bought a donkey. Camels are called "the ships of 
the desert' ' ; and had our travellers taken theirs all the 
way to Nazareth, their home, they might not have been 
able to sell them to anybody. 

The donkey which they bought was large and strong, 
and Joseph placed Mary the mother and the little boy 
upon its back. They were still a long way from Naza- 
reth; but Joseph intended to walk. Though the good 
carpenter was now beginning to grow old, and his black 
hair and beard were thickly sprinkled with grey, he was 
still vigourous, and a walk of only a hundred miles did 
not seem long to him. 

As they came into Judaea, and began to meet with 
Jews along the way, it seemed so good to them to hear 
their own familiar language once again ! They had not 
realised in Egypt that they were homesick; but now, 
when they heard the dear old Jewish language after all 
those years, they could have laughed for joy. They 
hailed the first company of Jews they met, and asked for 
news of home. They wanted to know everything which 
had happened since they left the stable at Bethlehem 
years before; and the first thing they learned was that 
53 



54 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Herod, the wicked King who had wanted to kill the little 
Jesus, was now dead. This was just what the angel had 
told Joseph in Egypt, when it had appeared to him in 
the dream, and said that it was time for them to go 
home. It is always good, when an angel has told you 
something, to have it verified by the lips of ordinary 
men. Of course you had confidence in the angel — but 
this gives you confidence in yourself. 

When they parted from that pleasant and talkative 
company of Jews, our wanderers felt as if they were 
already nearly home. They could almost smell the flow- 
ery lanes of Galilee; and as Mary rode slowly along on 
the back of the leisurely donkey, she told the young Jesus 
about the home to which they were going. He asked a 
thousand questions, as children will: were there Pyra- 
mids in Nazareth? was there a Sphinx? did the people 
worship cats and cows in the temples ? and did they make 
their dead friends into mummies, as in Egypt? To all 
these questions Mary answered that Nazareth was a very 
different place to Egypt; that there were no Pyramids, no 
Sphinxes there; that the people worshipped only the one 
God, Jehovah ; and that they would think it wicked to 
make dead friends into mummies. 

From all this we see that the young Jesus, though he 
was the son of God and the promised Messiah of the 
Jews, was at that time only a dear child, with all a 
child's thoughts and wonderings about strange places. 
And this is one reason the more why we love him so 
much; because, if he had not been human as well as 
divine, he could not have become the teacher of the 
world. Joseph and Mary could learn things from an 
angel, so transparent that .he did not even cast a shadow 
behind him ; but the great mass of people love Jesus most 
because he was also a man — who had once been a child, 



LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 55 

and had asked questions of his mother, the same as other 
children. 

When at last they came to the green road which 
led into their own village of Nazareth, they stood still 
and gazed about them. Everything was the same — and 
yet it did not seem the same. It seemed to them that 
the hills were not so high, that the streams were less 
wide; and every dear familiar thing looked smaller than 
of old. This was because they had stayed so long in the 
splendid land of Egypt, where everything was large, and 
even the horizon seemed vaster than in other places. For 
a moment Mary felt disappointed with Nazareth, the 
home to which she had looked forward with so much 
longing; and then the old love of it came back to her 
stronger than ever. You may not understand this now; 
but when you are grown up, and have been away on some 
long journey to a great and splendid land, and at last 
come back to your own home and find it smaller than you 
had thought — then perhaps you will think of Mary, the 
mother of Jesus, and understand her feelings when she 
came back to Nazareth. 

The reason why I am telling you these stories, is be- 
cause I want you to feel well acquainted with Joseph and 
Mary and the young Jesus ; because I want you to love 
them, as if they were your intimate friends — not far-off 
people that you only read about in books. 

They went straight to the house which still belonged 
to Joseph, and they found that nothing had been changed 
there during all the years they had been away. The 
large flat stone, with one corner broken off, which served 
as a doorstep, was still in its old place. The dusty-green 
olive-tree still stood beside the house ; and as the family 
came up the path, a cloud of pigeons alighted at their 
feet, cooing. One of them, tamer than the others, rested 



56 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

for a moment on the shoulder of the little Jesus, as if 
welcoming him to Galilee. 

That n-ight all their old friends and neighbours came 
to see them. The return of the Holy Family from Egypt 
was a great event in Nazareth, and every one wanted to 
learn about the strange country where they had lived so 
long. The young Jesus sat up with the others until a late 
hour. Was he not now a large, strong boy of seven 
years? He told these old friends of his parents how the 
Egyptian women, who worshipped animals, had wanted 
to take his own pet kitten and make a god of it. The 
kitten, now a cat, he had been obliged to leave in Egypt ; 
for cats love places more than people, and will not follow 
any master — not even a seven-year-old Jesus. 

His mother was surprised to hear him tell these men 
ind women, whom he had never seen before, all about the 
land of Egypt. Sometimes, in speaking of an object, by 
mistake he used the Egyptian word for it instead of the 
Jewish word; for he had spoken the Egyptian language 
with his little dark-skinned playmates since he could 
speak at all. It seemed strange to the simple dwellers in 
Nazareth that a little Jewish boy of seven should be able 
to speak a foreign tongue. Of course they did not know 
that this boy was the promised Messiah of the Jews, and 
Mary did not dare to tell them. She wanted him to have 
a happy childhood, just like other children. 

And when the friends and neighbours, saying good- 
by at a late hour, told Mary that her boy was the most 
wonderful child they had ever seen, she was just as 
pleased as if she had not known it all along. She even 
tried to think of some little fault of his, that these other 
mothers might not be jealous for their own children; but 
she could not think of the tiniest fault — because he had 
none. 



LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 57 

Jesus continued to live happily with his parents in 
the house at Nazareth. Part of the house was Joseph's 
carpenter shop, and the boy used to play there. He loved 
the fresh smell of the sawdust and the shavings ; he loved 
to hear his father's plane go whistling over the long 
planks, as he planed them into smoothness; he loved to 
watch him cutting out the wooden ploughs, with which 
the people of Galilee turned up the earth before the plant- 
ing time. And Jesus used to help his father in many 
little ways. Sometimes he held a board for him, which 
did not really need to be held at all ; sometimes he gath- 
ered up all the shavings and put them in a neat pile in 
the corner; sometimes he would tie a bunch of wild- 
flowers to the handle of his father's plane — that their 
sweet perfume might make it easier for him to work. 
The good Joseph always thanked the boy for these atten- 
tions, and when the bouquet of wildflowers, tied to his 
plane, was so large as to be in his way, he would put the 
flowers in a bowl of water — to keep them fresh, as he told 
the little Jesus. 

But of all the flowers of Galilee the boy loved best the 
lilies. And now, after nearly two thousand years, when 
we see great white lilies in a church, we like to think that 
they are placed there because Jesus cared for them so 
much. Can you not see him now in imagination, a little 
boy beside some quiet pond in Galilee, gathering an 
armful of these lovely flowers to carry home to his 
mother? 

It seemed to Mary that he grew more beautiful every 
day. Sometimes when she looked at him she trembled 
with that nameless fear which mothers feel — lest some 
unkind wind should blow upon him too roughly; lest 
some unlucky star, like those which the three wise men 
from the East believed in, should stay too long in the 



58 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

heavens above his head. And at night, after he had gone 
to sleep, she used to watch over him a long time, thinking 
of those words from the Song of Solomon : ' ' My beloved is 
white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. . . . 
As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my 
beloved among the sons." 

Like all children, Jesus loved stories; and he would 
sit for hours at the feet of his mother while she told him 
stories from the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament, as 
we call it. We must remember that in those days there 
was no New Testament; the New Testament was written 
by the friends and followers of Jesus long years after- 
ward, to tell the world about his life. 

Of all the old stories, perhaps Jesus liked best those 
about David, the shepherd boy who became King of 
Israel. He loved to hear his mother tell how David 
played the harp to cheer King Saul, when he was heavy- 
hearted. 

All boys like stories about giants, and Mary used to 
tell Jesus about the terrible Philistine giant, Goliath, of 
whom all the Jews were afraid in the time of King Saul; 
for Goliath was nearly twice as tall as any of the other 
men, and was all dressed in brass from head to feet, so 
that only his face could be seen. She used to tell him 
how the young David, who was small and slender, said to 
King Saul that he would go out alone and fight the giant ; 
and when King Saul was astonished that a mere boy 
should dare to do what the strongest men were fearful to 
attempt, David reminded him how he had killed a lion 
and a bear which had come to steal the sheep he tended ; 
and David said that the God who had saved him from 
the lion and the bear would save him also from this 
giant. And Mary told Jesus how David, clad in his 
shepherd's dress, went out to fight the giant, who was 



LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 59 

dressed all in brass, taking only for weapons five little 
stones from the brook ; how Goliath, enraged that a mere 
stripling had come out to fight him, drew near to David ; 
how David, as he ran forward, drew a stone from his 
shepherd's bag and threw it at the forehead of the giant, 
knocking him senseless; how he then ran to the fallen 
giant, and drawing Goliath's own sword from its scab- 
bard, cut off the giant's head. 

We may be sure, from what we know of Jesus in his 
after life, that he asked his mother why David did not go 
and play his harp to the giant Goliath, as he had played 
it to the melancholy Saul, and make the giant love him 
as Saul did. 

Mary told Jesus many other stories of the Jews, and 
in all of them there was much about fighting and killing, 
and very little about loving one another. She told him 
the stories just as they had been told to her; but the little 
Jesus always wanted to know why people did the things 
they did. He wanted to understand their hearts, as 
God must understand them; and always, when a man 
in one of these old stories had done a wicked thing, the 
boy was sure that it was because the wicked man had 
known no better, and because nobody had ever loved him 
enough. 

These loving thoughts, so familiar to us who have 
learned them from the teachings of Jesus, were new 
thoughts at that time, nineteen hundred years ago, when 
Jesus was a little boy. He was the first of all the Jews 
who had ever looked at things in just that way; the first 
who had believed that love was stronger than an army of 
soldiers, and that the surest way to make a bad man good 
was to be kind to him. These ideas were new even to 
Mary, the gentle Jewish mother; and she was always won- 
dering at the questions Jesus asked her. She used some- 



60 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

times to tell her husband that the little boy really taught 
her more than she taught him. 

After a few more years Jesus learned to help his father 
in other ways than by tying wildflowers to his plane, and 
gathering all his shavings into neat piles in the corner. 
He learned to work with Joseph in the shop, and when 
he was ten years old he could plane a board to satin 
smoothness, and could paint a chest as neatly as his 
father. Whatever the young Jesus undertook to do, he 
always did it better than any of the other boys of Naza- 
reth could have done; but he did not like to show his 
work to these young friends, for fear they would feel 
sorry and ashamed that it was so much superior to theirs. 
For Jesus the pleasure was in doing a thing, and not in 
boasting about it. 

By the time he was twelve years old he knew all the 
Old Testament stories which Joseph and Mary knew, and 
could repeat them as well as his parents could. But 
always, in telling these familiar histories, he used to give 
the reasons why people acted as they did — the reasons he 
had himself discovered by thinking so much about the 
hearts of others. He knew why God did not let Moses go 
into the Promised Land, but only let him view it from 
afar, after those forty years of wandering in the wilder- 
ness. He knew why the old King who wrote the Book of 
Ecclesiastes had such a bitter and disappointed view of 
life. He knew all the feelings of the little boy Samuel, 
son of Hannah, who served in the temple with the old 
priest Eli, that time when the Lord called him in the 
night, and when he had afterward to tell his old friend 
and teacher Eli how God was wroth with Eli's house be- 
cause of the wickedness of his sons. The Jews had lis- 
tened to this story all their lives ; but none of them before 
had ever thought to wonder what were the feelings of the 



LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 61 

little Samuel. Yet Jesus could have told them this, and 
many other unknown things besides, before he was even 
twelve years old. 

Now the year after he was twelve he set out for Jeru- 
salem, with his father and mother and many of their 
friends and neighbours, to celebrate the feast of the 
Passover. The boy had never been to Jerusalem before, 
though his parents were in the habit of going every year; 
but he was now so large that Joseph and Mary thought 
he was quite able to walk the whole of the long distance, 
some sixty miles. For the mother had to ride on the one 
donkey which Joseph owned. 

It was a charming journey for the boy, over the 
hills and through the valleys. The season was the 
springtime, when the earth is everywhere at her loveliest ; 
the little brooks babbled beside the road, the birds sang 
in the trees, and there were flowers on every side. We 
are told that the road which they took was the very one 
which now goes through Ginsea and Shechem, passing 
near the old sanctuaries of Shiloh and Bethel. The way 
was so long that they had to pass several nights on the 
road, camping in the fields. 

One sympathetic writer, whose great book you will 
read, perhaps, some day, says of the last halting-place, 
where they camped the night before coming to Jerusalem t 
"It is a melancholy and yet charming spot. The valley 
is narrow and sombre, while a dark stream issues from 
the rocks full of tombs, which form the banks of the 
stream. It is, I believe, 'the valley of tears,' or of drop- 
ping waters, which is sung of as one of the stations on 
the way in the delightful eighty- fourth Psalm. ' ' 

We can imagine the twelve-year-old Jesus, going away 
alone and walking under the stars, charmed with the 
beauty of this spot, and thinking of the splendours of 



62 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the city of Jerusalem which he would see on the morrow 
— the Holy City with its great Temple, where would be 
gathered thousands of his fellow-countrymen, to celebrate 
the feast of the Passover. 

Perhaps I had better tell you what the Passover 
means, and why the Jews always made a feast on that 
memorable day. A long time before, in the days when 
Moses and many other Jews were in the land of Egypt, 
God was wroth with the Egyptians because of their 
evil doings and their hardness of heart, and because they 
would not let the Jews go away, as they desired. And 
He had sent many plagues upon the Egyptians — to 
remind them that He was God, the All-powerful One, the 
Creator of the world, and the friend of the Jews. God 
had turned all the rivers and pools of Egypt into blood, 
so that the fishes died and the people had no water to 
drink. He had sent the plague of frogs over all the land 
of Egypt, so that from every stream these slimy reptiles 
came up and troubled the people. He had sent grievous 
swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, King of 
Egypt, and into his servants' houses, and into all the 
country, and the land was corrupted by reason of the 
swarms of flies. He had sent a plague upon all the cat- 
tle of the Egyptians so that they died ; but the cattle of 
the Jews did not die. He had sent the plague of boils, 
so that all the Egyptians were covered with sores. He 
had sent the plague of hail and thunder, so that every 
one in the fields was killed, and trees and shrubs were 
broken, and fire ran along the ground. He had sent the 
plague of locusts, so that the land was covered wifch them 
and the air was full of them, and the people could not 
even see the earth, and the locusts ate all the green 
things which the hail had spared. And still Pharaoh, 
King of Egypt, would not let the Jews go away. 



LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 63 

Then God told Moses that He would send a plague 
upon Egypt which should kill the first-born of every fam- 
ily, from that of Pharaoh the King to the lowest of his 
servants, and that a great cry should go up from the land 
of Egypt, such as never had been heard before and never 
would be heard again. 

And God told Moses that on the tenth day of the 
month every family of the Jews should take a lamb with- 
out blemish, a male of the first year; that they should 
feed and keep the lamb until the fourteenth day of the 
month, and should kill it in the evening of that day; that 
they should take the blood of the lamb and strike it on the 
two side posts and on the upper doorpost of their houses ; 
that they should eat the flesh of the lamb that night, 
roasted with fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs 
they should eat it, and that whatever remained of the meat 
in the morning should be burned with fire. God said that 
they should eat this feast with their loins girded, their 
shoes upon their feet, and their staff in their hand ; that 
they should eat it in haste — for it was the Lord'spassover. 

For God told Moses that He would pass through the 
land of Egypt that night and smite all the first-born of 
the Egyptians, from King Pharaoh downward; but that 
when He saw the blood upon the doorposts of the Jews, 
He would pass over those houses and leave their first- 
born alive; and that day should be unto the Jews a mem- 
orial, which they should keep generation after generation 
as an ordinance forever. 

And God did that night as He had said. He went 
through the land of Egypt and smote all the first-born of 
the Egyptians, from the first-born of Pharaoh, who sat 
upon the throne, to those of the captives that were in the 
dungeons, so that there was not a house where there was 
not one dead. 



64 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

And then Pharaoh let the Jews go away, as they de- 
sired; for he saw that God was God, the Creator of the 
world and the friend of the Jews. And from that time 
to this, the Jews all over the world have kept that day as 
the Passover, and have celebrated it in the way which 
God commanded. 

It was to keep this memorable feast that Joseph 
and Mary, with the young Jesus, went up to Jerusalem 
in the spring of the year after he was twelve years 
old. 

When the boy awoke on the last morning of their 
journey, and realised that that very day he would see the 
city of Jerusalem, with its Temple and its splendid 
courts, he trembled with anticipation. Young as he was, 
he loved God with an intense devotion; and, among the 
Jews, the great Temple at Jerusalem was called "the 
House of God." Jesus felt as if he were really coming 
into the presence of his Heavenly Father, the Creator of 
the Universe. He wondered why the older people around 
him could seem so indifferent; and when he heard two 
men talking together about the barley crops in Galilee 
that year, he was amazed at them. How could they think 
about such things, when they were within a few hours' 
journey of the House of God ! 

It was a lovely morning, clear and sunshiny, with a 
soft breeze from the west. The country just north of 
Jerusalem is not beautiful; but Jesus, who was usually so 
sensitive to Nature, was hardly conscious of the barren- 
ness of the region through which they passed. His 
thoughts were on the Temple. 

When they came to the outer porches of the Temple, 
with their rows of pillars and their marble pavements, 
the boy was so happy that he thrilled all over, for he felt 
that he was coming home to God. And when he heard 






LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 65 

the music of the harps, the viols and the dulcimers, he 
thought the angels of heaven were singing to him. In 
entering this place he forgot the Pyramids of Egypt, for- 
got the Sphinx and all the other wonders of the far-away 
land where he had dwelt so long; he thought only of the 
Jews, his own people, and of the God of the Jews — his 
Father. 

When he saw the great brazen gates of the Temple, so 
heavy that it took twenty porters to open and close them, 
they seemed to him to be the gates of heaven. In after 
years he knew, and taught the people, that the gate of 
heaven is only in the heart and not in any earthly temple, 
and that each man must open it for himself; but we 
must remember that he was now only a boy, twelve years 
of age, with a sublime imagination. And though he was 
the son of God, whom God had sent to the Jews as their 
Messiah, he had to grow up, like any other boy, and 
gradually learn for himself all that he was afterward to 
teach the world. 

Can we imagine what the feelings of the young Jesus 
were, when he heard the musicians of the Temple singing 
the verses of those sweet Psalms which predict the com- 
ing of the Christ? 

" Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. 

" Ash of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy 
possession. 

" I will make thy name to be remembered in all gener- 
ations; therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and 
ever. 

" Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon 
stretch out her hands unto God. 

' ' i" will praise the name of God with a song, and will 
magnify him with thanksgiving. 



66 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

" He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: 
as shotoers that water the earth. 

" His name shall endure forever ; his name shall be con- 
tinued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: 
all nations shall call him blessed. 

' ' The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the taber- 
nacles of the righteous. 

" The stone ivhich the builders refused is become the 
head stone of the corner." 

Did he realise, a boy twelve years of age, standing 
there in the court of the Temple, that he was himself the 
one whose coming had been predicted in these old Psalms 
which had been sung for generation after generation by 
the sad and persecuted Jews? Did he really know already 
that he was the Messiah? I cannot tell you, and no one 
else in all the world can tell you. A poet has said that 
the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts ; but who 
shall 'dare to say just when the knowledge that he was the 
Christ was given to the young Jesus? 

And was it not strange that among all these Jews 
gathered there in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, 
to eat the lamb without blemish, as God had commanded 
them in the time of Moses, no one (except Mary and 
Joseph) knew that the young boy with the beautiful 
shining face and the deep eyes, who stood so quietly 
among them, was the One whom they believed that they 
were waiting for? If any one had told them, they would 
not have accepted it. 

The young Jesus could not see all of the Temple 
at Jerusalem, because there were places where only the 
priests were considered pure enough to go. There was 
the Holy Place, where stood the altar of incense, with the 
table of shrewbread on one side and the golden candle- 
stick on the other. And there was the Holy of Holies, 



LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 67 

the innermost place which was entered only once a year, 
on the Day of Atonement, and where stood the Ark of 
the Covenant, the greatest treasure of the Jews and their 
most sacred thing. The Ark of the Covenant was a chest 
made of acacia wood, covered with gold; and over the lid 
of it, which was called "the mercy seat," two cherubim 
(or angels) extended their wings. In the Ark were kept 
the two tablets of stone on which were written the Ten 
Commandments, which God had delivered to Moses on 
Mount Sinai, thousands of years before. And between 
the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies there was a thick 
veil, too sacred for any one to touch except the High 
Priest. It was called the Veil of the Temple. 

It seems strange to us that Jesus could not enter this 
place. But the Jews were very rigid in the observance of 
their ancient laws, and the High Priest had great author- 
ity at Jerusalem. He would have been shocked had a 
young boy asked him to be allowed to enter the Holy of 
Holies and to look upon the Ark of the Covenant. But 
we maybe sure that Jesus thought much about this sacred 
place where he could not go. And he must have longed 
intensely to raise the Veil of the Temple which hid the 
Ark of the Covenant from his sight. 

The time of their sojourn in Jerusalem went swiftly 
by, and the great day of the feast of the Passover came 
and went. Then all the Jews who lived in other cities 
made ready to go home again; and on another bright 
spring day, like the one on which they had entered Jeru- 
salem, they all started for their homes. And Joseph and 
Mary started with them. 

It was not until after they had gone a whole day's 
journey from Jerusalem that Joseph and Mary discovered 
that Jesus was not with the company of Nazarenes. 
Though they had not seen him all day long, they had 



68 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

supposed he was a little way behind, with some of their 
friends and neighbours. But when they came to the 
place where they were to camp that first night, and dis- 
covered that Jesus was nowhere to be seen, the father and 
mother were terribly alarmed. Their little boy, their 
precious Jesus, whom God had intrusted to them, was 
lost! We can imagine the distress of Mary and Joseph. 
How could God ever forgive them, they thought, if any- 
thing were to happen to the child? 

They did not even stop to rest, but started back toward 
Jerusalem, travelling all night by the light of the stars. 
They did not know that they were tired, so anxious were 
they and so frightened. As she rode slowly back toward 
the Holy City, on the weary, stumbling donkey, Mary's 
eyes were blinded with tears. She must have wondered 
why the angel did not appear to her now and tell her 
where Jesus was; but if she called upon the angel, he did 
not answer. 

When, finally, they reached Jerusalem, they went from 
house to house among the people they knew, asking 
everybody if they had seen the child. But no one had 
seen him. They must even have appealed to the Roman 
guards ; but the Romans in Jerusalem did not love the 
Jews whom they helped their Emperor to oppress, and the 
loss of one Jewish child was not a matter of any impor- 
tance to them. 

Poor Mary! This was the first real suffering that she 
had known in her life; and when Joseph tried to comfort 
her, he could not think of any words to say, for he was 
almost as unhappy as she. They remembered how King 
Herod, twelve years before, had conspired against the 
young child's life; but the old Herod was dead now, and 
the King who ruled in his stead must long ago have for- 
gotten the story about the wise men from the East, who 



LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 69 

had come to Jerusalem with tidings of a wonderful child 
whose birth had been revealed to them by a star. But 
where could Jesus be? 

At last, after three days of such anxiety as only 
mothers of lost children know, Mary and Joseph found 
Jesus. They found him in the great Temple itself, 
among the priests and the learned doctors. 

It seems that Jesus had not been satisfied with what 
he had seen and learned at Jerusalem during the days be- 
fore the feast of the Passover. A thousand questions 
arose in his t young mind, to which he could find no an- 
swers. Why was only the High Priest allowed to lift the 
veil before the Holy of Holies? What was the meaning 
of the golden candlestick which stood beside the altar of 
incense? Why did it have seven branches? What made 
the High Priest so holy that he could stand in the pres- 
ence of the Ark of the Covenant? What really were the 
prophesies about the coming Messiah? Where did the 
old books say that he would be born? At Bethlehem? 
Why, he had been born at Bethlehem! What was the 
meaning of that verse in one of the Psalms he had heard 
sung: "The stone which the builders refused is become 
the head stone of the corner?" Did it mean that the 
Jews, the builders of the nation, would refuse to accept 
the Christ when he should come? 

When Joseph and Mary at last found Jesus, sitting in 
the Temple among the priests and the doctors, he was 
hearing them and asking them questions. His face shone 
with a light which his mother had never seen there, beau- 
tiful as he had always been. His eyes were more 
brilliant, and there was about him a look of power that 
was new and bewildering to her. 

' ' My son, ' ' she said, ' ' why hast thou thus dealt with us ? 
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. ' ' 



70 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

And Jesus answered her, very gently: "How is it that 
ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father's business?" 

But his mother did not understand all that was hid- 
den in the boy's words, for she did not know of the ques- 
tions which had been puzzling him for many days. And 
she did not know all that had been revealed to him by 
the answers of the priests and the doctors concerning the 
prophesies of the Messiah. 

Jesus went quietly home with his parents to Nazareth, 
as if nothing unusual had happened; and he was gentler 
and more obedient than ever, and no one could tell 
exactly what was passing in his mind. The mother won- 
dered if he knew already the great destiny that was in 
store for him when he should be a man? 



CHAPTER VI 

THE VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 

Imagine, now, that some eighteen years have passed 
since the young Jesus was found by his parents in the 
Temple at Jerusalem, talking with the priests and doc- 
tors. Jesus is now a man; but it is not about Jesus that 
I am going to tell you in the beginning of this story. I 
will tell you about John the Baptist. 

You remember how, in the very first of these stories, 
when Mary had learned from the annunciation angel that 
she was chosen by God to be the mother of the future 
Christ, she made a journey to the south to visit her 
cousin Elizabeth, who lived not far from Jerusalem. 

Soon after this visit, a son had been born to Mary's 
cousin Elizabeth, and they had called his name John. 
Now John was a few months older than Jesus, and he 
was a cousin of his. But, as their homes were far apart, 
they had not seen much of each other. Of course they 
had met sometimes in Jerusalem, at the annual feast of 
the Passover, and each must have made the other an 
occasional visit; but their lives had been separate. The 
two boys had been very different, and the two men were 
equally different. Jesus was all gentleness and love and 
sympathy; John was stern and cold and solitary. Jesus 
loved to wander among the pleasant hills and the blos- 
soming valleys of Galilee; while the favourite walking 
place of the solitary John was the stony and arid desert 
of Judsea, in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. 
71 



72 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

I tell you again, so that you may not forget it, that 
some eighteen years had passed since our last story. 
There was another emperor in Rome, another Roman 
governor in Judsea. 

About this time, the people of Jerusalem heard much 
of a strange man, tall and gaunt, who used to wander 
alone in the wilderness of Judaea, and farther east along 
the Jordan river. He was dressed in a single and scanty 
garment of camel's hair, a leather strap was around his 
waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. His 
long black hair hung loose and matted over his shoulders, 
his eyes were stern and wild; and often, in the solitary 
night, some lonely person walking under the stars would 
hear a voice crying in the wilderness : ' ' Repent ye, for the 
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. " 

At other times the tall gaunt man would appear in 
the streets of Jerusalem, when they were crowded with 
people, still crying in the same loud voice : ' ' Repent ye, 
for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." As you have 
probably supposed, this strange man was John, the cousin 
of Jesus. 

Now John had been alone so much in the wilderness, 
that the Word of God had been revealed to him there, 
and he had come to understand that the time was ripe for 
the Messiah of the Jews to appear upon the earth. There 
is always a strange power in desert places; and if a man 
like John, desiring intensely to do God's will, goes out 
alone into the desert and passes many days and nights, 
sometimes — only sometimes — God can make known to 
him there things hidden from the world of other men. 

As we know, for many hundreds of years the Jews had 
been looking for their Messiah; but John was the first to 
tell them that the Messiah was indeed come, already. 
The old prophets had written that God said to his son, 



VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 73 

the Messiah, who was then unborn: "Behold, I send my 
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way 
before thee." And John, who had read these words so 
many times in the Scriptures, knew now that he was 
himself the messenger whom God had sent to tell the 
people that the Christ had come. Can we wonder that, 
knowing this, he was indifferent to such things as clothes 
and food; that the one garment of camel's hair, girt 
about the waist with a leather strap, should seem quite 
good enough for him ; and that locusts and wild honey 
should be all the food he wanted? When a man's heart 
is full of a great idea, as John's was, sometimes he forgets 
to eat. 

Many people, seeing and hearing John, who was so 
different to themselves, believed that he was the old Jew- 
ish prophet Elias — risen from the dead. We must 
remember that the Jews were very unhappy under the 
Roman rule, and that they believed that God would some 
time raise the old prophet from his grave to help them. 
As they were now more oppressed by the Romans than 
ever before, why, they wondered, should not God raise 
Elias now? And it was this idea which, more than any 
other, made them follow John and listen to him, when 
he said: "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand." 

When men asked John what they should do to 
repent and be forgiven of their sins, he answered that 
every man who had two coats should give one of them to 
his neighbour who had none; and that every man who 
had meat to eat should give some of it to other men who 
were hungry. When the publicans, who were the tax col- 
lectors, asked what they should do to be forgiven by God, 
John told them to take no more money from their neigh- 
bours in taxes than what the Roman governor forced them 



74 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

to take. When the soldiers asked what they should do, 
he answered that they must not harm any man. And 
then he would always add : ' ' Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord, make his paths straight." For ever in the mind 
of John was the idea that the Lord Christ was somewhere 
in the world already, and that he should see him soon. 

John himself believed so firmly that he was sent to pre- 
pare the way of the Christ, that hundreds of other persons 
believed it, too; and great numbers of them came out to 
him, on the banks of the Jordan river and the Dead Sea, 
and confessed their sins. And when John saw that the 
people were honestly sorry for all the wicked things 
which they had done, he baptised them in the river Jor- 
dan, and told them to live a new life. It was because of 
this that they called him John the Baptist, the baptism 
in the river being to them a sign that God believed in 
their repentance and would forgive them. 

But when others who were not honest, such as the 
Pharisees and the Sadducees, came to his baptism, John 
answered them with great severity, telling them that every 
tree which did not bring forth good fruit should be cut 
down and cast into the fire. He meant by this to com- 
pare them to trees which bore no fruit; for the Pharisees 
and Sadducees, while they talked a great deal about their 
religion, did not seem to think that kindness to others 
had anything to do with it. 

There are many like them at the present day. For if 
a man really loves God, he will want to do good to his 
fellow beings ; and if a man has only bad things to say of 
his neighbours, it is hard to believe that he loves God. 
Even a child who really loves God will sometimes give 
one of his toys to a poor child who has nothing to play 
with. When we give things to the poor we lend them to 
God. 



VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 75 

Only a few months before that time, no one had ever 
heard of John, except a few of his friends and neighbours ; 
but now he was one of the most famous men in Judaea — 
all because of his preaching and baptism. And he had 
many disciples, that is to say, he had many friends who 
believed in him, and who followed him everywhere, living 
as he did in the wilderness and eating very little food. 

Seeing him so surrounded with disciples, some men 
even wondered if John himself were not the Messiah who 
was to come; but John always denied this. He said: 

"I indeed baptise you with water ; but one mightier 
than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not wor- 
thy to unloose : he will baptise you with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire. ' ' 

When John said that, men began to understand what 
he really meant : that Christ had come already, and that 
he was somewhere at that moment among the Jewish 
people. And they wondered who it could be. Was it 
anybody they knew? Was it anybody in Jerusalem? 
What would the Messiah do, if he were really come? 
Would he free them from the Roman rule? Would he 
make himself King of the Jews, and sit upon the throne 
of Herod? Would he perform miracles? 

No one dreamed that the Messiah could be the young 
Jesus of Nazareth, who sometimes came down to Jeru- 
salem to attend the feasts. In fact, few men had even 
heard of Jesus at that time. 

And now we will leave John for a little while, preach- 
ing to the people in the wilderness of Judaea and baptising 
them in the river Jordan. We will leave John and go up 
to Nazareth in Galilee, where Jesus lived. 

I have told you much about Jesus when he was a little 
boy; but you must think of him now as a man, about 
thirty years old, tall and strong and beautiful, with a 



76 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

look of love in his eyes such as no one had ever seen 
before, and a voice so kind and gentle that every one 
loved to listen to it. Joseph the carpenter, who had been 
such a good father and husband, was now dead, and 
Mary and Jesus lived alone in the little house at Naza- 
reth, surrounded by their friends and neighbours. It is 
often true that when we have lived near a person all our 
lives, we do not know how beautiful and good that person 
really is ; and the neighbours of Jesus had no idea that he 
was the greatest man in the world. They had seen him 
for years, working in the carpenter shop of Joseph; or 
walking quietly through the narrow and stony streets, 
followed by the children; or coming down alone from the 
hills beyond the town where he loved to roam in the early 
morning or the late evening. They had grown accus- 
tomed to asking his advice and help when they were in 
any trouble; but it had always been as a friend and 
neighbour that they appealed to him — never as the Mes- 
siah of the Jews. 

And when Jesus first began to speak to other men 
about God and their duties to Him and to one another, 
the people in his own town did not specially care to hear 
him. So he went to the little villages round about, 
where the men and women listened gladly when he spoke 
to them about God. For he was very gentle, and it 
seemed to them that he must have some beautiful secret 
hidden in his heart, because his eyes were so loving and 
he smiled so sweetly upon all the world. Sometimes, 
when he did not know that any one was looking at him, 
a wonderful light would suddenly come into his face, and 
they who saw it knew that he was thinking of God. 

Already a few men had begun to follow Jesus about 
from place to place, as other men followed John the Bap- 
tist. They loved to hear the beautiful things he said, 



VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 77 

and, most of all, they loved to be near him, because they 
were so happy in his presence. But even these friends, 
who were already his disciples, though they did not 
realise it — even these did not know yet that he was the 
Messiah. So far, he had never told them that he was 
different to other men ; but it was because they felt, some- 
how, that he teas different, that they followed him. 

About this time the people in the little towns of Gali- 
lee, in the north, began to hear much of the strange man 
whose voice was always crying in the wilderness of 
Judaea, "Kepent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand. ' ' When Jesus heard about John and his preaching 
and baptism, he knew that the time had come for him to 
announce that he was the Christ. For had not the old 
prophets said, as being the words of God to the Messiah 
when he should come : ' ' Behold, I will send my messen- 
ger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before 
thee. " And John had now prepared his way. 

But, as we can imagine, it was hard for Jesus to tell 
these friends, who loved him for himself as a man, that 
he was after all something very much greater than a mere 
man. He knew that they had to be told ; but, with all 
his wisdom, he did not know how to tell them. So, as 
he understood now that John the Baptist was the messen- 
ger whom God had chosen to send before his face, to pre- 
pare the way before him, he felt that it would be better if 
John the Baptist should announce to the world that Jesus 
was the Messiah. 

So he asked his friends to come with him down to 
Judaea, where John was preaching and baptising beside 
the Jordan. He did not know in just what way the 
announcement of his Messiahship would come; but he 
felt that God would bring it about in the one best way, 
whatever that might be. 



78 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

There was one young friend with him, John, the son 
of Zebedee, to whom it would have been easy for Jesus to 
tell anything. For the young John was very gentle and 
beautiful, and he loved Jesus much. 

You must always remember, in reading the stories 
which follow, that the young John, son of Zebedee, was a 
different person to John the Baptist. As Jesus had these 
two friends who were both named John, it is necessary to 
keep them distinct from each other in your mind. 

Now when Jesus, with his friends, came down to the 
place where John the Baptist was preaching and baptis- 
ing by the river Jordan, there was a large company 
assembled; for many had come out from Jerusalem and 
the smaller cities round about. John had probably seen 
Jesus in the crowd, for in his sermon that day he said : 

"There standeth one among you whom ye know not; 
he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, 
whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." And 
everybody wondered who John meant. 

After the sermon, one by one the people went down to 
the place where John was standing in the water, and asked 
him to baptise them. There were old people and young 
people, men, women, and even children, who confessed 
their sins and asked for the rite of baptism. The multi- 
tudes in all the country round had been thoroughly 
aroused by the preaching of this strange man, John, so 
tall and dark and fiery looking, robed in his garment of 
camel's hair and with his long black locks hanging on 
his shoulders. They did not understand him; but they 
felt that he knew something which they did not know, 
and many of them were sincerely sorry for their sins, and 
hoped with all their hearts that the promised Messiah had 
really come. 

We can picture the scene: the shore of the river 



VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 79 

crowded with men and women, dressed in their strange 
Oriental garments of many colours, so different to those 
we wear; the bright sun shining down upon them all, 
showing here and there a fresh, young, earnest face, 
alight with enthusiasm ; here and there also an old, keen, 
crafty face, darkened with unbelief — for not every one 
who came out to hear John and to see the baptism really 
had faith in him; and down at the foot of the crowded 
shore, the blue river, glittering in the sunshine; and out 
there in the water the tall form of the preacher, John. 

Jesus was standing there in the crowd, a little way 
back from the river. He had noticed how, when John 
said that there was one standing among them whom they 
knew not, whose shoe's latchet he was not worthy to 
unloose, many had started and looked from one to an- 
other, searching with their eyes for the person whom John 
meant. Then Jesus had seen them go down one by one 
to be baptised. He had seen his own friends also go 
down to John in the river, and when they came up, their 
eyes were shining with the light of faith in God. 

The heart of Jesus was very full ; for he knew that the 
time of his long waiting was now over. The years when 
he had lived so peacefully in his little home at Nazareth, 
with the gentle Mary his mother, working in the carpen- 
ter shop and dreaming his beautiful dreams, were of the 
past. Before this hour, he had seemed to belong to him- 
self and to his mother; after this hour, he would belong 
wholly to God and to the world. He had now to go down 
into the water of the Jordan, like all the others, to be 
baptised of John; but he knew that when he came up out 
of the water, he would come up as the announced Mes- 
siah of the Jews. 

As he stood there on the shore, his mind went back 
over all the things which I have told you in these stories 



80 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

about his early life. He thought of his birth in the sta- 
ble at Bethlehem; for his mother had told him about the 
sweet-breathed cows that had come to sniff at him, a little 
baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a man- 
ger, and about the three wise men from the East, who 
had ridden into Bethlehem on their camels, bringing him 
gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh — led on by the 
star. He thought of the enmity of King Herod, now 
dead, which had driven his parents to Egypt with him, 
when he was a newborn baby. He thought of those long 
years in Egypt, from the time when he could first remem- 
ber anything until the day they started on the long journey 
back to the land of the Jews, after the death of Herod. 
He thought of his first visit to Jerusalem, at the time of 
the Passover when he was twelve years old, of the strange 
questions which had then arisen in his mind, of his talks 
with the priests and the doctors, and of how the knowl- 
edge had first come to him that he himself was the long- 
promised Christ. And he thought of all the years that 
had passed since then, years of study and labour, which 
had prepared him for his great work of teaching the 
people about God. And now, at last, that work was to 
begin. , 

Jesus waited until all the other people who desired it 
had been baptised, then, without looking behind him or 
thinking any more about the past, he went down into the 
water beside John, and asked for the baptism. 

John was surprised. Why, he wondered, should 
Jesus want to be baptised? Baptism was for sinners, he 
thought, surely not for the Christ who had come to save 
sinners. And, besides, John did not feel that he was 
good enough to baptise Jesus. He wanted Jesus to bap- 
tise him, instead; but Jesus said no. 

As you will learn, perhaps, when you are older, the 



VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 81 

man who is really great is nearly always humble in his 
heart. Though Jesus knew that he was the Son of God, 
he was not willing to let John take the second place there, 
before the people whom he had baptised. Of all the 
beautiful acts in the life of Jesus, we can hardly think of 
one which shows a tenderer consideration for the natural 
human feelings of another. You may have to think 
about this before you will understand it fully; for it has 
puzzled many wise and good men, including the disciples 
who were with Jesus at that time. A smaller man than 
Jesus would have been pleased to push John aside and 
take his place here before the multitude of people; but 
Jesus was too great for that. 

And then, perhaps, he felt that in being baptised by 
the noble John, he would receive at John's hands the 
dedication of God for the great work he had to do. He 
may have felt that he would be stronger after the blessing 
of John, even as a father sometimes feels stronger and 
better able to do his hard work in the world, if his little 
son or daughter lays a loving hand upon his face in the 
morning before the day's work begins. 

So John baptised Jesus. We feel that the hands of 
John must have trembled as he laid them in blessing upon 
the head of the Messiah — so much greater than himself. 

And then something very strange and beautiful hap- 
pened. The Bible says that as Jesus came up out of the 
water, the heavens opened above him, and the Spirit of 
God, which we call the Holy Spirit, came down in the 
form of a dove, and rested upon the head of Jesus, as he 
stood there on the shore of the river. And he heard the 
voice of God, his Father, speaking from heaven, and 
saying to him : 

"Thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well 



82 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

When he heard these words Jesus wanted to be alone, 
that he might think quietly of the work he had to do, in 
teaching his fellowmen about God's love. So, leaving 
his friends there by the Jordan river, he went away by 
himself into the wilderness of Judaea. It was very still 
and solitary there, and he began to think of what it 
meant to be the Son of God. 



CHAPTER VII 

ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS 

Have you ever been alone for half a day — absolutely 
alone? If so, perhaps you were lonely, perhaps you were 
afraid. Perhaps, too, you thought you would be glad to 
see any one — no matter whom — so long as they would 
talk to you, or even sit quietly on the other side of the 
room. You may have felt, though you could not have 
expressed the feeling, that there was something present 
with you — something invisible — which could see you, 
but which you could not see. 

If you can remember such a time, you will be better 
able to understand the story of Jesus in the wilderness, 
where he remained alone for forty clays. The wilderness 
of Judsea is a very barren and rocky place, and in the 
time of Jesus there were wild animals there. It was in 
this wilderness where John the Baptist had wandered, 
when God made him understand that the Messiah of the 
Jews had come into the world. It was to this same bar- 
ren waste that Jesus went, to be alone with his own 
thoughts and with his Father in heaven. For he who 
really dares to be alone may learn many things in soli- 
tude; he may get acquainted with himself, and feel, 
though he may not see, God. 

After Jesus had been baptised by John in the river 

Jordan, and the Spirit of God had descended upon him 

in the form of a dove, and the voice of God had spoken 

from the heavens, saying, "Thou art my beloved son, in 

83 



84 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

whom I am well pleased, ' ' Jesus had heard John telling 
the people who pressed around them that he, Jesus of 
Nazareth, was the Messiah, who had come to save the 
Jews. 

And Jesus, who had thought about God and the work 
he had to do for Him these many years, felt suddenly 
that he had not thought about God quite enough to be 
able to speak of Him just as he wished to speak. So he 
left John and his other friends, and all the people who 
pressed around him asking questions, and went away 
alone to the wilderness. He did not take any food with 
him, and there was no food in the wilderness — except, 
perhaps, such locusts and wild honey as John the Baptist 
had lived on; but Jesus did not want food now. He 
wanted God. And he found Him in the wilderness. 

The Bible does not tell us what he did there during 
the first days; but can we not imagine? Can we not see 
him by day walking over the stony ground, his beautiful 
head bent in thought, his eyes fixed on the future? Can 
we not see him at night, under the stars, lying upon the 
hard rock, praying that God would show him what to do 
for the world, which needed all the love he had to give 
it? Perhaps, when you have heard the preachers talk 
about Christ, you have not had a very clear idea of what 
and who he was. He may have seemed to you very 
shadowy and far away, and not at all like human beings. 
It is to make you understand how real and near he was — 
and is — that I am telling you these stories. 

When Jesus was in the wilderness he was thinking 
about all the people in the world, he was loving all the 
souls in the universe, born and unborn, and that means 
our souls, too. He was studying what he could do for 
us, and trying to learn from God how he could do it 
best. 



ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS 85 

It was sometimes cold at night in the wilderness of 
Judaea; but Jesus was not thinking about his comfort. 

When you are hungry for half an hour, remember that 
he was hungry for forty days. When you are alone for a 
little while, and impatient that some one does not come 
and amuse you, think of him — alone for forty days, and 
glad to be alone, because he had so much to think about. 
When a man, or even a little child, goes away alone to 
think about God — God is always with him. 

From something which happened afterward, and 
which I will tell you about presently, we know that Jesus 
must have come to realise there in the wilderness what he 
had not fully realised before — not only how much he was 
like other men, but how different he was to them. The 
great souls of the world are modest; they are not always 
thinking of how great they are, but rather of how great 
and beautiful and dear other people are. You have read 
about Jesus as a little boy, and you have read about him 
as a man, in his home in Nazareth and at Jerusalem; you 
know how kind and gentle he was, and how much he 
loved the simple life of the workers in Galilee — poor 
people who lived by the labour of their hands. His fos- 
ter-father, the good Joseph, had been only a carpenter, 
and Jesus himself had worked at that humble trade. He 
had seen the great monuments of Egypt as a little boy, 
and later he had seen the palace of the King at Jeru- 
salem, and the palace of the Roman governor. There was 
a> great difference between the little carpenter shop in 
Nazareth and the palace of the Herods at Jerusalem ; and 
yet Jesus, whose home was in the carpenter's shop, had 
now to announce himself as some one very much more 
important than those who dwelt in the King's palace. 
In our democratic times it may not be easy to imagine 
how strange this seemed in those days. 



86 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

In our time, should a poor young carpenter say that 
he was greater than the King of England, or greater than 
the President of the United States, the people of those 
countries would merely think him crazy. But in the 
time of Jesus, for a young carpenter in Judaea to say that 
he was the Messiah, meant more in the eyes of the Jews 
than it would mean in our day if a young man should 
declare himself king of the world. For was not the Mes- 
siah, in whose future coming the Jews believed, to be 
greater than all the kings of the world put together? 

We have always taken as a matter of course that 
Jesus, knowing himself to be the Christ, should tell the 
world so when the time came; but it was not so simple 
as we may have supposed. We do not wonder that he 
wanted a little time alone to think, there in the wilder- 
ness of Judaea. 

It must even have been difficult for him, brought up 
like any other young man, to realise himself that he was 
the great One whom the nation waited for. What should 
he do? How should he teach mankind? Of course he 
knew that God would show him how ; but his very human 
questioning of himself makes him seem all the greater 
and all the nearer to us. For, if he had not been also a 
man, he could not have taught us about God. 

Now we are told that during the forty days that Jesus 
was in the wilderness, the devil was there also sometimes, 
tempting him. You must often have heard of the devil; 
but have you any idea what the devil is? The story 
books picture him shaped somewhat like a man, but with 
horns and hoofs and a long tail ; and they tell us that he 
is the spirit of evil. But what does the spirit of evil 
mean? It is not nearly so hard to understand as you 
have supposed, if you will begin by realising that the 
devil is the opposite of God. Everything that God is, the 



ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS 87 

devil is not. God is loving, and the devil is not. God 
created the world, and the devil, being His opposite, 
seeks to destroy it. God is true; that is why the devil, 
being the opposite of truth, is called the father of lies. 
God affirms, He says that beauty and goodness are ; but 
the devil denies everything beautiful and good. If a child 
says that his mother loves him, that thought comes from 
God; but if he denies his mother's love, that thought is 
of the devil. 

Now in the time of Jesus — and long afterward even to 
our own day — people believed that when a man was very 
good indeed, the devil was always watching for an oppor- 
tunity to come and tempt him. They believed that the 
devil chose an hour when the man was weak, either from 
illness or grief, and least able to combat the devil's 
denial of everything good and beautiful. And then the 
devil would come with doubts and sneers — for sneers and 
doubts are always of the devil. I hope you will remem- 
ber this, when you are men and women. 

We are told that Jesus had not eaten anything for 
many days, and that he was very hungry. It was then 
that the devil appeared to him in the wilderness, and 
said: 

"If thou be the son of God, command that these 
stones be made bread. ' ' 

This was the same as saying that if Jesus could not 
make bread out of stones, he was not the son of God; for 
the devil always reasons well. It was, of course, just at 
the time when Jesus had come to realise what it meant to 
be the son of God, when he was ready to go back to the 
multitude of people and tell them that he was really the 
Messiah, that the devil (of doubt) appeared and posed 
that simple suggestion : " If thou be the son of God, com- 
mand that these stones be made bread." 



88 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

But Jesus, though he was hungry, did not try to turn 
the stones into bread. He merely said to himself, and 
to the devil : 

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. ' ' 

Of course the devil hoped that Jesus would try to turn 
the stones into bread, that he would fail in doing so, and 
that his faith in himself would thus be weakened. For 
the devil can often make a strong man weak by making 
the strong man doubt his own strength. What the devil 
was trying to do, was to make Jesus doubt that he was 
really the son of God. In other words, and that you may 
better understand, the devil dared Jesus to try to turn 
stones into bread. 

When he found that Jesus could not be tempted in 
this way, the devil took him up into a high mountain, 
from which he could see the Temple at Jerusalem, the 
palace of the Herods and that of the Roman governor; 
and he could also see, in his imagination, all the other 
powerful kingdoms of the world. Now, as the devil had 
failed in trying to make Jesus doubt himself, he thought 
he might succeed in another way — by making him ambi- 
tious of worldly glory. If Jesus had wanted to be king 
of the world, and to live in palaces, of course he could 
not have fulfilled his mission as the Son of God, who had 
to live with the common people, to share their poverty 
and to love them. If Jesus had not been the Christ, but 
a mere man, strong in his faith in himself, the devil 
might have succeeded this time ; for we may suppose that 
Jesus, who has changed the world by his religion, might 
have made himself a king if he had wanted to. It 
required greater power to do what Jesus did than to make 
oneself an emperor, like Csesar or Alexander. There have 
been many emperors, but there has been only one Jesus. 



ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS 89 

The devil, as he pointed to the Temple and the 
palaces, said to Jesus : 

"All this power will I give thee, and the glory of 
them : for that is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I 
will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all 
shall be thine. ' ' 

But Jesus did not want worldly glory, and he said : 

"Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou 
serve." 

Then the devil, having twice failed, tried still another 
way. He went down to Jerusalem, the Holy City, with 
Jesus, and led him up to a pinnacle of the Temple, high 
above the stone court — so high that if any one had fallen 
from that pinnacle, he would have been crushed and 
killed. And the devil, pretending to accept the fact that 
Jesus was the Christ, suggested a quick and simple way 
for him to prove his Messiahship to all the world. He 
said, pointing to the stone court below : 

"If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from 
hence : for it is written, he shall give his angels charge 
over thee, to keep thee ; and in their hands they shall bear 
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a 
stone. ' ' 

We can imagine Jesus standing there high above the 
city, on a pinnacle of that great Temple which had been 
built to celebrate the glory of God, his Father. Perhaps, 
as he looked down, he saw men walking far below in the 
courts, and looking small by reason of the distance — 
quiet and solemn Jews going about the business of the 
Temple, unaware that the Messiah had come to the world 
and that he stood there above them. Perhaps, for a mo- 
ment, Jesus may have wondered if, should he step off the 
edge of the pinnacle, God's angels would not really bear 



90 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

him up. In the exaltation of his new-found power, his 
consciousness of being the Son of God, the thought may- 
well have come to him. 

If such a thing could have been; if those doubting 
Jews had seen him come down through the air, like an 
angel, and alight beside them unharmed, surely they 
would then have believed in him. 

But Jesus remembered that God rules the world by 
laws, and that those laws are never broken, not even by 
God Himself; that even so-called miracles are but pro- 
founder applications of those same laws. He realised 
that the thought that angels might possibly bear him up, 
was only another and more crafty temptation of the 
devil. So he answered the spirit of evil: 

"It is said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." 

Then, seeing that Jesus had grown stronger with every 
temptation he had resisted, and knowing that it is only 
in hours of weakness that doubt and denial can triumph 
over faith, the devil sneaked away and left Jesus alone. 

The Messiah came down from the pinnacle of the 
Temple and went to rejoin his friends. They had 
thought of nothing but him during his forty days in the 
wilderness alone, away from them. When they saw him 
coming, he looked to them like an angel. There was a 
wonderful light in his face, and power seemed to radiate 
from him. 

Now in all the stories that I have told you before, 
Jesus has been merely getting ready for his life's work. 
But in the stories that are to come you will learn how this 
same Jesus, who had been a baby in the manger at Beth- 
lehem, and a little boy in far-away Egypt among the 
Pyramids, and a dreamy-eyed youth walking over the 
hills of Galilee, became the greatest man in all the world, 
and did greater things than any other man had ever done. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 

One of the first things Jesus did after coming out of 
the wilderness was to go to a wedding. But before he 
went to Cana, where the marriage was celebrated, he had 
chosen several of his disciples — those friends who were to 
follow him as long as he lived, and who were to be near 
him all the time, except when he sent them away to 
preach his faith in other towns. 

When you have heard about the disciples of Jesus, 
you may have wondered how he came to have them, and 
why they followed him. If you can realise how beautiful 
Jesus was and how kind, you will understand why these 
friends of his were glad to leave everything else in order 
to be near him. Did you ever know a person, perhaps a 
teacher of yours, who was so lovely to you that you 
wanted to have him always in your sight, so lovely that 
you thought of him all the time when he was away, and 
counted the hours until you should see him again? I 
can remember having such a teacher, when I was a little 
child; and had my beautiful teacher asked me to follow 
her to the end of the world, I would have been very 
happy. 

The disciples of Jesus, though they were grown men, 
had the hearts of children; and you know that Jesus was 
a very great teacher, the greatest teacher in the world. 
Even before he spent those forty days alone in the wilder- 
ness, he had taught his friends much about God; but 
91 



92 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

when he came out of the wilderness he had much more to 
teach them ; and he was also gentler and more loving even 
than he had been before, though he had always been gen- 
tle and full of love. 

In those days many persons really wanted to learn 
about God ; they had more time than we have, for they 
did not hurry so from one thing to another. And when 
the friends of Jesus had learned from John the Baptist 
that the Messiah was really come — the promised Messiah 
they had heard about all their lives, and especially when 
they learned that Jesus was that Messiah, they were wild 
with joy. They thought of nothing else but him. They 
treasured every word he spoke, and they could never look 
at him long enough. If he asked them to do some little 
thing for him, they were happy; for they felt that he con- 
ferred a great favour upon them by letting them serve 
him. If you have ever loved any one with all your heart, 
you will know how they felt. 

I told you in one of the earlier stories about the young 
John (not John the Baptist, but the other one) , and how 
Jesus loved him so much that he could have told him 
anything. This young man was very gentle and affec- 
tionate, with large soft eyes, and a great faith in his 
teacher. In after years he wrote a beautiful story about 
Jesus. Now John and his elder brother James were two 
of those who went with Jesus to the wedding feast at 
Cana. 

And there were several other disciples who went. The 
young John tells us, in his story, that the disciple An- 
drew, who was one of those who went to Cana, had been 
a disciple of John the Baptist, the man clothed in the 
garment of camel's hair girt about the waist with a leather 
strap, the man whose voice had cried in the wilderness, 
1 ' Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. ' ' 



THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 93 

Andrew was standing one day with his teacher, John 
the Baptist, and another disciple, when they saw Jesus 
going by. We can imagine that Jesus did not look like 
anybody else in the world; and that no matter where he 
went, everybody turned to gaze after him. He drew the 
hearts of men as a magnet draws needles. Perhaps, if 
you have ever seen a magnet, you will better understand 
the attractive power of Jesus. Now when John the Bap- 
tist saw the Master walking by, he said to Andrew and 
the other disciple: 

"Behold, the Lamb of God." 

The two disciples knew that he meant the Messiah, and 
they followed after Jesus. To them, the very idea of see- 
ing the Messiah was so wonderful that they did not dare 
to speak to him at first; they just followed quietly. 

When Jesus noticed that they were there behind him, 
he turned his face to them and asked them what they 
sought. 

They called him ' ' Master, " as we would say ' ' Teacher, ' ' 
and asked him where he lived. 

Then Jesus took them with him to the house where he 
was staying, and he talked to them about God all the rest 
of the day. He told them that God was really the 
Father, as well as the Creator, of all the men in the world, 
and of all the women and the little children; and that 
God loved everybody so much that He yearned all the 
time to have His children love Him, too. He told them 
that in the heart of every one, at the very centre of them, 
there was a little spot where God could come and live, if 
they would only let Him ; and that when God lived there 
in the heart of a man, or a woman, or a little child, they 
were so happy that no one who did not have God living 
in his heart could even imagine how they felt. They 
might be so poor they did not have enough to eat; they 



94 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

might have to work all day long like a slave ; they might 
be sick and in pain all the time; and yet, if they had let 
God come and live in their hearts, they did not mind 
hunger, or toil, or pain, because they just felt God there 
in the centre of them, loving them and telling them of 
His love. Their hearts seemed always to be full, not 
only of God, but full of love for all the world, for those 
who were their friends and those who were their enemies 
— just the same ; for, knowing that everybody was really a 
child of God, too, whether they themselves knew it or 
not, these people who had God in their hearts felt that 
all other people were their brothers and sisters. 

And Andrew and the other disciple, as they listened 
to Jesus, as they saw his lovely smile, and felt the love 
for all the world which radiated from Mm, were conscious 
of a strange swelling in their hearts, such a feeling as 
they had never had before, and they knew then that God 
was knocking at the door of their hearts. And they 
opened their hearts wide and took God in. For though 
God is as great as the whole universe of stars and worlds 
and suns, He can make Himself as small as the heart of 
even a little child. And whenever a little child asks God 
to come and live in his heart, God always comes. And 
then the child can nevermore be cross with any one, 
because God cannot be happy in the heart of any person 
who does not love all the world just as He does. 

And Jesus asked Andrew and the other disciples to go 
north with him into Galilee, and he told them that he 
would take them with him to the marriage feast at Cana, 
where they should see something wonderful, which would 
make them understand that one who really felt himself to 
be the Son of God had great power, and could do whatever 
strange thing God wanted him to do. 

And Andrew was so happy at having found the Mes- 



THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 95 

siah, and so happy at having opened his heart for God to 
come and live inside him, that he thought of his brother, 
Simon Peter, and wanted him to be just as happy as he 
was. So he went and found his brother and brought him 
to Jesus, and Jesus told Simon Peter everything which he 
had told Andrew; and Simon Peter opened his heart to 
God also, and became a disciple of Jesus. 

Next day they started north into Galilee, walking 
along the beautiful country roads and over the green 
hills. And Jesus talked with them on the way, telling 
them all the time something new about God. 

That day he met Philip, a friend of Peter and An- 
drew, and called him also to be one of his disciples. 
And while Jesus and the others waited in one place, 
Philip went away by himself and found another friend of 
his, Nathanael, coming from under a fig-tree. 

When Philip met Nathanael, he told him that they 
had found the Messiah, of whom Moses and the prophets 
had written long ago, that his name was Jesus, and that 
he came from Nazareth. And Nathanael answered : 

"Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" 

Among the Jews there was an idea that Nazareth was 
a very poor place. You know that in almost every region 
there is some little town, or village, which the people of 
other towns all laugh at, for some reason or other. And 
often the people who live in these unpopular towns, when 
any one asks them where they came from, answer with 
just a shade of hesitation, as if they felt beforehand that 
they were somehow in disgrace on account of the place 
where they live. Perhaps God sent Jesus to live in Naza- 
reth for that very reason, to prove that it is really a 
man's heart, and not the town of his birth, that makes 
him superior or inferior to others. And Jesus was born 
poor, to teach the world not to despise poverty. And 



96 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Jesus worked with his hands, as a carpenter, that men 
might feel that manual labour was honourable. 

So, when Nathanael said to Philip, "Can there any- 
good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip answered, 
1 ' Come and see. ' ' 

For no one, by merely talking about Jesus, could 
make another understand how lovely he was. It would be 
like trying to describe a rose to a person who had never 
seen or smelled one. 

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said to him : 

"Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile!" 

And when Nathanael asked Jesus how he knew him so 
well, never having seen him before, Jesus answered: 

' ' Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under 
the fig-tree, I saw thee. ' ' 

We do not know what Nathanael had been doing 
under the fig-tree; but it was probably something im- 
portant to him, because he was so impressed by the fact 
that Jesus could know of a thing which had happened out 
of his sight. Nathanael told Jesus then that he was in- 
deed the Son of God, the King of Israel. But Jesus 
wanted men to believe in him for better reasons than be- 
cause he could tell what they were doing when they were 
away from him, and he answered Nathanael: 

"Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig- 
tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than 
these." 

And in a little while Nathanael did see greater things 
— at the marriage feast at Cana. 

Among the Jews of the olden time a wedding was 
always a scene of great rejoicing — even more so than with 
us, perhaps; and all the friends and neighbours of the 
young couple came together to eat and drink, and to wish 
the bride and bridegroom long life and happiness. In 






THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 97 

our country the marriage feast is given at the house of the 
bride, or that of her friends ; but among the Jews of the 
olden time, the ceremony of marriage was performed at 
the bride's house, and the feast was given after dark at 
the home of the bridegroom. 

Jesus came up through Galilee to the little town of 
Cana, with his new disciples, to attend the marriage of a 
friend. Now Mary, his mother, knew that he was com- 
ing, and she went to the wedding thinking more about 
her son than about the bride. She had not seen him 
since he went down to Jerusalem, about two months be- 
fore. When he left her in Nazareth, he had been just her 
big son; but now she knew that John the Baptist had 
told people that he was the Messiah. She had also heard, 
from friends of Jesus who had been in Jerusalem with 
him, that he had gone into the wilderness of Judsea; and 
she was full of wonder as to what he had done there. 
Had he been cold? Had he been hungry? For a mother 
is always a mother, and thinks of her child's comfort, 
even though she be the mother of Christ. A neighbour 
who had seen Jesus a few days before in a little town to 
the south, had told Mary that Jesus now had disciples 
with him, who called him Master and seemed almost to 
worship him. Mary had listened with glistening eyes, 
with her heart full of love and a strange excitement she 
had never known before. 

You must remember that she was no longer the young 
girl Mary, whom you read of in our earlier stories. She 
was now about fifty years old, there were white threads 
in her soft hair, and around her eyes the little lines 
which come with the passing years. She did not wear 
any longer the pretty red dress which she had worn in her 
youth, but a more sober garment. Though she was not 
so pretty and rosy as she had been some thirty years be- 



98 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

fore, she was still very beautiful; for her face was full of 
love and gentleness, and love and gentleness are often 
more attractive than pink cheeks and pretty dimples. 

When Mary saw Jesus at last, coming down the road 
with his disciples, and when he greeted her and told his 
new friends who she was, Mary was so happy that she 
could hardly say a word; she just looked at him, and 
looked, and looked. She thought of the three Magi who 
had come to the stable in Bethlehem when he was a new- 
born baby, and she wished that those wise men could see 
Jesus now. They had called him the King of the Jews, 
and surely he looked like a king this day, though he 
wore the same simple garments he had worn before. But 
his face was shining. 

They all went together to the house of the bride, where 
the marriage ceremony was to be performed. It was late 
in the afternoon of a beautiful day. The bride and 
bridegroom stood under a canopy, they both wore crowns, 
and the bride wore a white veil. The Jewish elder, who 
performed the ceremony of marriage, stood with the bride 
and bridegroom under the canopy; he had a cup in his 
hand, which was called the cup of blessing, and he first 
asked God to bless the company assembled. 

Then he gave a cup of wine to the bride and bride- 
groom, who drank of it, and promised to be faithful to 
each other. When the bridegroom had drank the last of 
the wine, according to the ancient custom of the Jews, he 
dashed the cup to the floor and crushed it under his heel. 
This strange act was intended to remind them that per- 
fect happiness was impossible, so long as Jerusalem, the 
Holy City, was ruled over by strangers. The marriage 
agreement was then read aloud, and all the people present 
drank together — which sealed the fact that they were wit- 
nesses of the marriage agreement. Then all the friends 



THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 99 

of the bride and bridegroom — and among them Jesus, his 
mother and the new disciples — walked round the canopy 
where stood the married pair, showering them with rice 
and chanting the Psalms of David. At the end of the 
ceremony the elder asked God to bless the couple with 
the seven blessings of the Jews, he drank himself of the 
benedictory cup, and passed it round to the assembled 
friends. 

We can imagine with what sweetness Jesus went 
through this beautiful ceremony, for his being the Son of 
God and the Messiah did not separate him from other 
people; instead, it drew him nearer to them. We feel 
sure that the bride at Cana was happy all her life, just 
because Jesus was at her wedding, and because he walked 
around her with the others chanting Psalms. Perhaps 
some time, when you go yourself to a wedding, you will 
think of this one in the little village of Galilee, and re- 
member that Jesus walked around the bride and bride- 
groom, blessing them with his love. 

But the strange event of the day happened later in the 
evening at the house of the bridegroom, where Jesus and 
the other friends and neighbours went to eat the marriage 
feast. For nearly two thousand years, people all over 
the world have talked of the thing which happened 
at the bridegroom's house, and have wondered what it 
meant. 

It was now quite dark, and all the happy company 
prepared to take the bride to her new home. As they 
went out of doors, every one carried a lamp, according to 
the custom at Jewish weddings, and in a few minutes the 
long dark road was glittering with little lights, which 
moved hither and thither. To those who came last, the 
procession ahead looked like a long and wavering line of 
fireflies. Jesus was there with the others, carrying his 



100 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

lamp; and the new disciples walked beside him, with 
their lamps, too. We may like to think that the lamp of 
Jesus was brighter than those of the others ; but perhaps 
it was just the same. One of the beautiful things he 
taught was that all men were sons of God. 

When they reached the bridegroom's house, they 
found a great feast spread for them. There were delicate 
meats and luscious fruits and cakes, and the pleasant 
wine of the country which was not so strong as our wine. 
The bride and bridegroom took their places at the head 
of the table, and the feast began, with merry laughter 
and talk. 

We can see Jesus sitting there with the others, rather 
quiet and thoughtful, not wishing to draw attention to 
himself and his great mission on this evening when all 
thoughts were turned toward the new-made bride. If by 
his power he could serve them, or add to their happiness, 
that would please him well; but he would not talk even 
about God this evening, when every one else wanted to 
talk about the bride and bridegroom. Some one has said 
— and the saying is so true that I will repeat it here — 
that Jesus was the first perfect gentleman which the world 
ever knew, meaning by that that he was the first man, in 
those rougher ancient times, who always acted with deli- 
cate consideration for the feelings of others, which is 
really what it means to be a gentleman. And here we 
see the Messiah, the great man for whom the Jews had 
waited generation after generation, making himself one 
of a pleasant company ; and a little later in the evening, 
when he performed a miracle which the world has talked 
about ever since, it was not done to call attention to him- 
self, but to give pleasure to others. 

The guests at this wedding-party drank much of the 
pleasant and almost harmless wine of the country; and 



THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 101 

after a time, it was discovered that the wine was all con- 
sumed — that there was no more. 

Mary, the mother, came and whispered to Jesus that 
the guests had need of wine. We do not know what was 
in her mind; but she must have known that Jesus, being 
the Messiah, could do many wonderful things, and there 
may have been at the back of her thoughts a hope that he 
would take the opportunity to prove his power before this 
large company. At first Jesus seems to have hesitated, 
for he said to his mother : 

' ' Mine hour is not yet come. ' ' 

But Mary felt that he would do something, because 
she knew how much he loved to make others happy; so 
she said to the servants of the house that whatever Jesus 
asked them to do, they should do it. Jesus was thought- 
ful for a moment, as if he were weighing his mother's 
unspoken suggestion that he should perform a miracle. 

Now there were standing not far from the table six 
large waterpots of stone. Jesus arose from the place 
where he was sitting, and said to the servants of the 
house, ' ' Fill the waterpots with water. ' ' And they filled 
them to the brim. 

The Bible does not tell us just what Jesus did as he 
stood there beside the waterpots; but he may have whis- 
pered words of power, reminding himself that he was the 
Messiah, the Son of God, with control over all the ele- 
ments of the earth. He may have spoken to the water, as 
if it could understand him, and could change itself at his 
command. 

After a moment he turned again to the servants of the 
house, and told them to draw out the fluid that was in 
the waterpots and to take it to the governor of the feast. 
And the servants did as Jesus told them. And the ruler 
of the feast did not know what Jesus had done to the 



102 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

water ; but the servants knew. And when the ruler of the 
feast tasted the liquid taken from the waterpots he tasted 
delicious wine — far better than any he had ever drunk 
before. 

And he called out to the bridegroom, reminding him 
that in the beginning of a feast the host usually served 
the best wine, reserving the wine which was not quite so 
good for a later hour, when the guests had been satisfied 
with drinking. "But," said he to the bridegroom, "you 
have reserved the best wine until now. ' ' 

We are not told that Jesus said anything to the assem- 
bled guests about the miracle he had performed. Prob- 
ably he sat in silence, watching them drink the wine 
which he had made out of pure water, knowing that by 
and by, when the feast was over, the servants who had 
seen him turn the water into wine would tell their mas- 
ter, and that he would tell the others, and that gradually 
the story would spread — to the glory of God, who could 
perform such miracles through His Son. 

If we ask ourselves how Jesus could turn water into 
wine, it may have been because of the added power which 
he had gained by resisting the temptations of the devil in 
the wilderness. For a man, or even a child, grows strong 
with every temptation which he overcomes and puts be- 
hind him. 

But the new disciples of Jesus had seen what he had 
done, and they now believed more firmly than ever that 
he was the Messiah whose coming had been foretold. 
And they were eager to see him do other things ; for the 
miracle which Jesus performed at the marriage feast at 
Cana was only the first of a long series of miracles, which 
I will tell you about in the stories that are to come. 



CHAPTEE IX 

REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 

After the marriage feast at Cana, where Jesus had 
turned the water into wine, and after he had been with 
his disciples to a few of the other little villages of Gali- 
lee, preaching the love of God and the brotherhood of 
men, Jesus began to feel a strong desire to see Nazareth 
again, the town where he had been brought up. Some- 
times, when he was sitting quietly alone, a picture of the 
little stony streets of Nazareth would come so vividly be- 
fore his mind that it seemed almost as if he were really 
there. He began to dream of the carpenter shop, where 
he had worked with Joseph, his good foster-father. He 
thought of the high hill beyond the town, where the 
breeze always blew, summer and winter, and from which 
he could see the beautiful outline of Mount Carmel to the 
west, and looking east, and north, and south, the sharp 
or curving forms of other hills and mountains. 

And he thought of his neighbours in Nazareth, the 
boys and girls with whom he had played as a child, but 
who were now grown men and women with children of 
their own. He wanted them to be glad that their old 
friend was the Messiah who had come to save the Jews ; 
he wanted to tell them how to open their hearts to God, 
so that He would come and dwell inside their breasts, and 
make them so happy and so loving that every day would 
seem a holiday and every living creature would be their 
brother or sister. He had made his new friends feel 
103 



104 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

these things, and now he longed to make his old friends 
feel the same. 

So, one pleasant day in the summer of the year, Jesus 
found himself again in the old house in Nazareth, with 
his disciples. How glad his mother must have been to 
see him come home, and what a long and loving talk they 
must have had the first evening, after the friends who 
came with Jesus had gone to rest, and the mother and son 
were alone in the old garden, under the starlit sky. They 
had so many things to talk about. I think she must 
have told him again about the wise men from the East 
who had followed the star to Bethlehem to find him as a 
little baby, now thirty years ago. They must have talked 
about his childhood in Egypt and the strange ways of 
that far land. But, most of all, they talked about his 
future, of the great work which he was going to do for 
Israel and for all the world. Of course it seemed to Mary 
that now the Messiah was really come, all the Jews would 
welcome him with gladness. Had they not been looking 
for him thousands of years? 

Jesus had learned, especially in Jerusalem before he 
came north to Galilee, that not all the Jews believed that 
he was the Messiah. Already he had had some trouble 
with men of his race, who were astonished that he should 
dare to say he was the Christ. For it is very hard for 
some persons to believe that a man whom they know, a 
man they can see and talk with, a man who eats and 
drinks like themselves, is different to or better than they 
are. They can understand that Moses was a great man; 
they can believe that Elijah was a prophet; but when a 
man of their own time says that he knows something 
which they do not know, and especially when he says 
that they do something which they should not do, these 
dull and unimaginative people always want to throw 



REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 105 

discredit on him. And it was so with many of the Jews 
in regard to Jesus. 

So he told his mother now that she must not expect 
that every one would love her son as his disciples loved 
him. He reminded her of what the old prophets had 
said, that the Messiah, when he came, would be a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief. 

It was hard for Mary to understand. How could they 
help loving him, she thought, when God had sent him to 
the world to save them? 

But though Jesus loved the people of Nazareth with 
all his soul, and would gladly have suffered a hundred 
deaths to give them the happiness of feeling God inside 
their hearts, he did not know, for sure, that they would 
accept either God or him. He hoped so — but he did not 
know. 

After she went to rest, Mary the mother must have 
lain awake a long time, thinking about her beloved son 
and all that he had said to her that night. She wished 
that her husband Joseph were alive, to comfort her if 
anything went wrong. Though he had been dead a long 
time, she could almost feel his presence in the room with 
her. She remembered how gentle his hands had been as 
he had lifted her and the baby Jesus onto the back of the 
donkey, the starlit night when they had started for Egypt, 
thirty years before. It was so hard to realise that he was 
dead! She wanted to talk to him about Jesus. She 
could talk with others about her wonderful son; but no 
one understood as Joseph would have understood, had he 
been living. 

The next day was the Sabbath. The house was so 
very small that the disciples may have been obliged to 
sleep in the old carpenter shop; and we can see Jesus 
going out to them in the early morning, to pray with 



106 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

them, and from their love to gather strength for whatever 
the day might bring forth. Hard tasks are always easier 
when those we love stand by and help us with their faith. 
But, on the other hand, Jesus may have feared that some 
of his new disciples would be discouraged if the people of 
Nazareth did not love him and accept him as the Mes- 
siah; and if he went out in the early dawn and prayed 
with them, it was to strengthen their faith — not his own. 

I have told you about the young man John, with the 
tender eyes and the gentle voice, the disciple who loved 
Jesus so much. Can you not see him, with the morning 
sunlight on his fresh young face, as he stood there with 
Jesus and the other men, praying that God would reveal 
Himself that day to the dwellers in Nazareth? 

When the hour came for the Sabbath service in the 
synagogue, Jesus, Mary, and the five or six disciples who 
were there, walked along the narrow streets to the small 
bare building which the Jews of Nazareth used as a place 
of worship. You know that a synagogue is a Jewish 
church; but the synagogue of Nazareth was not like the 
splendid churches which you may have seen in cities. It 
was more like some little Methodist chapel in the country 
districts of England or America, with a few hard benches 
for the worshippers to sit on, and a reading stand, or pul- 
pit, where the speaker of the day read from the old 
Scriptures and tried to explain 'them. There was no 
regular preacher. 

The news had already gone abroad in Nazareth that 
Jesus, son of Mary, had come back to the town; that he 
was followed by disciples who called him the Messiah; 
that he was said to have turned water into wine at Cana, 
and that he had cured many people of their sicknesses by 
laying his hands upon them. Old men in Nazareth who 
had known Jesus as a little boy, shook their heads sadly 



REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 107 

and pointed to their foreheads, as much as to say that he 
must be crazy. Young men who had been brought up 
with Jesus and who had known him all their lives, de- 
clared that what he claimed was quite impossible — had 
they not seen him every day for years, and how could he 
be the Messiah? The son of Joseph and Mary! How 
absurd ! 

We may be sure that every man, woman, and child in 
Nazareth who was able to walk to the synagogue, was 
there that Sabbath morning. It was generally the custom 
in the little Jewish towns for the schoolmaster to read the 
Scriptures in the synagogue on the Sabbath, for the syna- 
gogue was also the schoolhouse. This schoolmaster was 
one of the "elders," or "rulers of the synagogue," who 
had special seats of honour reserved for them, and who 
took themselves very seriously. The most sacred parts of 
the service were read by a man called the delegate. This 
was not always the same person; and on that Sabbath 
morning when Jesus, with his mother and his disciples, 
went to the little synagogue in Nazareth, the chief shep- 
herd, as they called the chief elder, must have asked 
Jesus to act as delegate for the day. You will remember 
that Jesus had been brought up in this town, that he had 
been in the habit for many years of going to this syna- 
gogue on the Sabbath, and that he may often in the past 
have acted as chief reader, or delegate. You should also 
remember that he probably knew every man, woman, and 
child who was in the synagogue that morning. 

Now none of them had seen him since the day, a few 
months before, when he had left Galilee to go down to 
Jerusalem to hear the preaching of John the Baptist, who 
had first proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. And 
they were full of curiosity as to what he would say and 
do. The Jews were a very jealous people; and the elders 



108 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

of Nazareth were resentful that a man of their own town, 
whom they had always regarded as one of themselves and 
no better than they were, should have become so famous 
in other towns. If the young people of Nazareth were 
full of unbelief in Jesus, the elders of Nazareth were full 
of jealousy and envy and spite. What blasphemy, they 
said to themselves, for this young man to claim that he 
was the Messiah! And when the chief elder gave Jesus 
the Book and asked him to read, we may be sure that he 
looked at Jesus very hard, as much as to say that he was 
giving him an opportunity to do his worst. 

Mary, the gentle mother, must have trembled as she 
sat on her bench with the other women of the congrega- 
tion. The night before she had been full of joy; but 
when she saw her son among these hard and skeptical old 
men, she was filled with anxiety. Why could they not 
see how beautiful he was! She may have wondered if she 
should have told her neighbours long ago about the visit 
of the angel, who had announced that her son was to be 
the Christ. She may have almost blamed herself for 
her own delicacy and fineness. But the next moment she 
must have realised that she had done quite right; for if 
she had told these same old men years before that her son 
was the one whom God had sent to save Israel, they 
would have been just as full of unbelief; and Jesus, in- 
stead of having had a youth of happiness and quiet, 
would have been tormented all the time. 

Mary saw Jesus go into the pulpit with the Holy Book 
in his hands. He stood there for a moment, silent and 
calm. It seemed to her that he had never looked so tall. 
From where she sat she could see the backs of the elders 
on the front benches ; some of them were turned sidewise, 
so that she saw the wrinkles at the corners of their sharp 
eyes, and the stern or sneering look of their old mouths, 



REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 109 

half hidden in their grey beards. Then her glance went 
back to the face of Jesus, as he stood there before them 
so tall and so calm. She saw him open the Book, the 
Scripture which the chief elder had given him ; he seemed 
to be looking for some special passage. Then in his 
strong, sweet voice he began to read from the prophet 
Esaias, and this is what he read : 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath 
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath 
sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance 
to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to 
set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the accept- 
able year of the Lord. ' ' 

Then he closed the Book, and silently handing it to 
the chief elder, he sat down. The eyes of every one in 
the synagogue were fixed upon his face. No one moved 
even a finger, and the room was utterly still — so still that 
Mary could hear the rustling of the wind among the 
leaves of a tree outside the window. Then she heard 
Jesus say, in a voice sweeter and stronger than before : 

"This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." 

Then he began to talk to them, explaining the Scrip- 
ture which he had read. For the words of the prophet 
Esaias had been about the Messiah who was to come, who 
should preach the gospel to the poor, and comfort the 
broken-hearted, and free the captives, and restore sight 
to the blind, and do many other great things. When 
Jesus had said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in 
your ears, ' ' everybody in the synagogue understood what 
he meant, that lie was the fulfilment of this prophesy; 
that he, whom they had known all their lives, was the 
one whom the great prophet Esaias had referred to, cen- 
turies ago. And though they had felt that he might say 
something like this, they were nevertheless astonished; 



110 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

and they looked at him as if he were quite strange to 
them, as if they had never seen him before. 

Then he went on to tell them what he wanted to do ; 
how he hoped not only to help the Jews in their troubles, 
but to teach them how to open their hearts to God, that 
He might come and dwell in their hearts, and fill them 
with love for every living creature. The same beautiful 
things which he had told his new disciples, and which 
had made them follow him, Jesus told to these old neigh- 
bours of his, gathered there in the synagogue at Nazareth. 

As he stopped speaking for a moment, he heard sev- 
eral old Jews say to the men who were next them on the 
benches : 

"Is not this Joseph's son? Is not this the carpenter, 
the son of Mary? Where did he learn these things? 
What new wisdom is this which is given to him? How 
could he do the things which people say he has done?" 

When Jesus heard them murmuring together, he said 
— still in the same sweet voice and with a patient smile — 
that they would probably repeat to him the old saying, 
"Physician, heal thyself;" that they would probably ask 
him why he could not do in Nazareth, his own country, 
the same things which he had done in other towns and 
cities. Then he repeated to them another old saying: 

"A prophet is not without honour, but in his own 
country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." 

Then Jesus, knowing that they would recognise a 
reference to the prophets, reminded them that there were 
many widows in Israel in the days of Elias, when there 
was no rain for three years and six months and everybody 
was starving; but that the prophet Elias was sent only to 
one of them, a widow who lived in a city of Sidon. And 
he reminded them also that there were many lepers in 
Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and that none 



REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 111 

of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian. By this 
he meant them to understand that, though there were 
many inhabitants of Nazareth, and many elders in the 
synagogue, God had selected Jesus only to show forth His 
glory. 

Now when the elders and other men of Nazareth heard 
this, they were very angry. And they rose up in their 
seats, and began talking all at once and threatening 
Jesus, who stood there quietly in the midst of them, with 
a sad smile on his face. For these old friends and neigh- 
bours were dear to him, even though they were so hard 
and bitter and unbelieving. 

Mary the mother must have been frightened when she 
saw the men surrounding Jesus and threatening him; but 
she did not dare to say a word. There was a dreadful 
uproar in the synagogue, everybody was moving forward, 
trying to get to Jesus ; and no one would have listened to 
the mother, even if she had tried to soothe them. Through 
the hubbub of many voices she heard the chief elder tell 
Jesus that he must leave Nazareth right away, that they 
would not have him there any longer; and all the other 
voices shouted yes. 

Then these angry and noisy men made Jesus go out of 
the synagogue, and his disciples and the other people fol- 
lowed. Jesus did not try to stay, or even to dispute with 
them; for it was a part of his teaching that those who 
loved God should always meet violence with gentleness. 
When he asked them where they wanted him to go, they 
pointed to the brow of the hill whereon the city was 
built. And Jesus went that way peacefully, his disciples 
and the people of Nazareth still following. 

When they reached the brow of the hill, which was 
high and rocky, these elders and other men of Nazareth 
tried to throw Jesus down headlong that he might be 



112 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

killed — so angry were they that a man whom they had 
known as a child should dare to say he was the Son of 
God. 

But Jesus passed quietly through the crowd with his 
disciples, and escaped the wrath of the men of Nazareth. 
For while he would not raise his hand against them, he 
did not mean to let himself be killed; because he had 
only begun the work which he had to do for God and for 
the Jews. Jesus must have been very sad that morning, 
as he passed along the road toward Capernaum, a little 
city near the Sea of Galilee, where he was to do many 
wonderful works. 

The eyes of the mother were full of tears as she went 
back to her lonely home. She had expected so much 
from this visit of Jesus to Nazareth, and it had turned 
out so badly. She knew now that she could not live any 
longer among those cold and unbelieving people who had 
tried to kill her son, so she prepared to follow him to 
Capernaum. It is always hard for a woman of Mary's 
age to leave the house where her son has grown to man- 
hood ; but she felt that wherever Jesus was, there would 
her home be in the future. 

As she was moving sadly about the house, a shadow 
fell across the doorway. Looking up, she saw the bright 
face of the young John, the disciple who loved Jesus so 
much. The Master had sent him back to fetch his mother 
to Capernaum. 



CHAPTER X 

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 

For each one of us there is some place where we work 
better than in other places, some city where we make 
friends more easily and where we find a truer happiness 
than anywhere else in the world. For Jesus that con- 
genial spot was the little city of Capernaum, near the sea 
of Galilee. This was the home of Peter and Andrew, of 
James and John, and it was here that Jesus worked some 
of his greatest miracles. In the quiet house of Peter the 
Master was happy, and the dwellers in Capernaum, simple 
and kind-hearted beings, understood and loved him bet- 
ter than the people of any other place. 

It was to Capernaum that he came after the unhappy 
experience in his home-town of Nazareth, where the men 
who had known him as a child refused to accept him as 
the Messiah of the Jews, or even as a prophet. Though 
the Master had been sad at Nazareth, as he drew near to 
the charming city by the lake the weight fell from his 
heart, and the power in him which had been slowly devel- 
oping for many years blazed forth. He walked along the 
green road with his friends as a conqueror going to meet 
his destiny. 

On the next Sabbath day he went into the synagogue 
at Capernaum, as he had done at Nazareth, and taught 
the people his beautiful new doctrine of a loving Father 
in heaven, of the kingdom of God which was some day to 
be manifest in the world, and of the true brotherhood of 
113 



114 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

men — because they are all equally the children of the 
Father. Nothing like this had ever been heard before in 
the synagogue at Capernaum. The Jews spoke often of 
the wrath and jealousy of God, but seldom of His love; 
and the scribes who taught the people were merely men 
learned in the Hebrew scriptures, whose hearts were gen- 
erally as dry and lifeless as the parchment on which they 
copied the chapters of the Law. 

The fame of Jesus had gone before him to Capernaum, 
and on that Sabbath day the synagogue was crowded with 
men and women, all desirous to see this young prophet 
whose friends proclaimed him as the Messiah. There 
was, of course, some incredulity; but most of the people 
in Capernaum were glad to listen to Jesus, whether he 
were really the Messiah or not. And after they had heard 
him speak, even the most skeptical were deeply impressed 
with his sincerity and power. The world assumes a new 
and different colour when seen through the eyes of one 
who believes in the beauty of the world. And Jesus did 
not repeat old things in a dull way, like the scribes ; on 
the contrary, he said new things, boldly and on his own 
authority. 

There was in the synagogue that day an unfortunate 
man who, according to the saying of the Jews, was pos- 
sessed by an unclean spirit — that is to say, he was in- 
sane, and said and did revolting things. In those days, 
when a man had lost his reason it was generally believed 
that he was possessed by a devil, and the crazy things he 
did were attributed to the malice of this demon. 

When Jesus had finished his sermon, this insane man 
— or the devil that was in him — cried out: 

"Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou 
Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I 
know thee who thou art, thou Holy One of God. ' ' 



THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 115 

For the devils who possessed men were supposed to be 
afraid of prophets and of holy beings and of angels, and 
of all that was good and pure. 

Jesus looked at the madman steadily, and in a voice 
of authority he said to the devil that was in him : 

"Hold thy peace, and come out of him." 

The unfortunate man fell on the floor of the synagogue 
in convulsions, and those who stood by said that the 
devil tore him, for he cried with a loud voice, moaning 
and shrieking as if he were indeed tormented by some 
invisible force. Jesus regarded him calmly, without 
saying another word ; but the look of power was still in 
his eyes. Most of the Jews who were present gazed at 
Jesus, instead of at the possessed man on the floor, for 
they had never seen any one look as the Master did at 
that moment. His eyes were aflame, though he was so 
quiet, and the full strength of his will was directed 
toward the spirit of evil which had made this man, his 
brother and the child of God, more beastly than the ani- 
mals of the field. For man, the highest of earthly beings, 
can become the lowest, when the soul in him loses its con- 
trol of the body which should be its servant. 

Gradually the convulsions ceased, the harsh voice was 
stilled, and the man who was no longer possessed by a 
devil, picked himself up from the floor. His countenance 
was changed, the leer had left his face, his whole person 
was transformed. To those who had known and pitied 
and avoided him for years, he seemed suddenly to have 
become another person. His bent back was straightened, 
and the eyes which had been almost too terrible to gaze 
into, were now quiet and wide and pure. The man was 
cured. 

This was the first miracle which Jesus performed in 
Capernaum, and the men and women who beheld it were 



116 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

amazed. They questioned each other, saying among 
themselves : 

"What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for 
with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, 
and they obey him. " 

When the people left the synagogue they talked of 
nothing but Jesus and the miracle he had wrought. What 
manner of man was he? they asked each other. If he 
were not the Messiah, as his friends claimed, what could 
he be? Certainly, they said, no ordinary person could 
drive out a devil as he had done. 

And his doctrine! They were still thrilling with the 
idea of a Father in Heaven who loved them and desired 
them to love one another. Could loving the Father give 
to other men such power as Jesus had? Would he remain 
long with them? Would he cure others, as he had cured 
the madman? They thought of this person and that who 
was afflicted with disease, and the new feeling of brother- 
hood which was already stirring in their hearts made them 
desire that all men who suffered should be brought to the 
Master. It is thus even to this day with those who have 
found Jesus — they want to share him with others. 

When he left the synagogue Jesus went to the house of 
Peter, followed by those disciples whom he had already 
chosen. This home became the favourite resting-place of 
the Master. In the house of Peter, surrounded by the 
family of that good man — his wife, his wife's mother and 
his young children — Jesus was to spend perhaps the hap- 
piest hours of his life. For peace is always happiness, 
even with so exalted a being as the Master from Nazareth. 

When they reached the house that Sabbath day, they 
found that the mother-in-law of Peter was sick with a 
fever. This good old woman, who was ever happiest 
when she was serving others, could do nothing now but 



THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 117 

lie upon her bed of pain. She could not eat, she could 
not sleep; but tossed restlessly from side to side. Her 
daughter feared that she would die, 

Peter told Jesus that his wife's mother was ill. Al- 
ready, after only a few weeks in his company, the sturdy 
fisherman of Capernaum believed that his Master could 
do anything he willed to do. 

Jesus entered the bedchamber of the sick woman. Her 
face was flushed with fever, her tangled grey hair lay over 
the pillow, and her brilliant, feverish eyes were fixed upon 
the Master. In her delirium she thought he was an angel, 
as he stood there before her in white garments, his face 
illuminated by the rays of sunlight which came through 
the open window. Never, perhaps, had Jesus so much 
desired to heal any one as he desired to heal this faithful 
creature. 

He came and stood beside her bed, he took her by the 
hand, and in the same way that he had commanded the 
demon to leave the man in the synagogue, so he now com- 
manded the fever to leave the woman. It is hard to un- 
derstand a power like that of Jesus ; but after a few mo- 
ments the throbbing in her temples ceased, the unnatural 
brilliancy of her eyes was softened, and her hand which 
had lain hard and hot in that of Jesus became relaxed 
and cool. The fever was gone ; and obedient to his will 
as a little child, she waited for him to tell her what to 
do. 

Still holding her hand, Jesus lifted her up. She 
stood upon her feet, softly smiling at her daughter and 
son-in-law, who had witnessed this extraordinary scene. 
Nothing that the Master did could really surprise Peter, 
but his face was aflame with joy. What a privilege was 
his, he felt, to be the chosen companion of a man who 
could say to the sick and the afflicted, "Arise," and 



118 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

they arose ! We may be sure that Peter embraced the 
good old mother of his wife, and that his honest eyes 
were wet with tears of happiness. The disciple, who had 
left his family to follow Jesus, now knew that never in 
the future would his long absences be blamed. For the 
sake of a Master who could do them service like this, the 
women of his household might well be willing to endure 
a little loneliness — even to take upon themselves for a 
time all the cares of the home. 

The mother who had been cured now went about the 
work of the house as if nothing unusual had happened, 
and she ministered to Jesus and his disciples, preparing 
their food and serving it to them. 

And Peter's children — young boys and girls alert 
with the vivid interests of youth ! We can picture them 
in imagination, grouped about their father's Master, gaz- 
ing at him with wide-open, curious eyes, and asking him 
questions about Nazareth and Jerusalem, as well as about 
the kingdom of heaven. We can believe that they hung 
upon his arms, or even about his neck; for children are 
never afraid of those who are truly great, and Jesus loved 
the little ones. 

Through the long and happy afternoon the Master re- 
mained quietly in the house with his friends, and when 
the evening came and the sun had set, they brought to 
him all the people of Capernaum who were sick, and those 
who were believed to be possessed by devils, like the man 
in the synagogue — so many that all the inhabitants of the 
city were gathered together at the door of Peter, and could 
not come into the house because there was not room for 
them. 

And Jesus healed those who were sick with various 
diseases, and he cast out the devils from those who were 
insane, for there were many such in Galilee. And more 



THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 119 

and more the people wondered at him, asking each other 
how such things could be. 

Among those who came to seek the help of Jesus was 
a certain centurion, a Roman officer, who had command 
of a hundred soldiers. This man, unlike most of the 
Roman officers, was much liked by the Jews, because he 
himself loved their nation. He had even built them a 
synagogue, as an evidence of his friendship. Now the 
centurion had a sick servant that was dear to him, and 
having heard of the cures which Jesus had performed in 
Capernaum, he came to him and said : 

"Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, 
grievously tormented. ' ' 

He did not suggest that Jesus should do anything. 
He merely stated the facts of the case, leaving everything 
to him. The Master said : 

"I will go and heal thy servant." Now this cen- 
turion was different to most of the Romans in Palestine. 
He did not feel, merely because he belonged to the ruling 
race, that all Jews, even the most exalted, were inferior 
to himself. On the contrary, he was wise and subtle 
enough to know that no Roman, not even the Emperor, 
was really the equal of this Jew, this Jesus of Nazareth, 
whose words were like winged flames, and whose deeds 
were already the main subject of conversation in Gali- 
lee. And when the Master offered to go to the cen- 
turion's house, which was some distance away, and to 
heal his sick servant, the man was conscience-stricken 
at the thought of giving Jesus so much trouble. And he 
said: 

' ' Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under 
my roof ; but speak the word only, and my servant shall 
be healed. For I am a man under authority, having 
soldiers under me : and I say to this man, Go, and he 



120 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my 
servant, Do this, and he doeth it. ' ' 

When Jesus heard this, he marvelled. It was the 
same as if the man had said that the Nazarene, being 
Master over the powers of Nature as the centurion himself 
was master over his soldiers, could command the disease 
of palsy to depart from the afflicted servant, even at a 
distance, and it would depart — like a soldier sent away by 
his commander. Jesus said to those who followed him : 

"Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great 
faith, no, not in Israel. 

"And I say unto you, That many shall come from 
the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, 
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But 
the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer 
darkness. ' ' 

For Jesus, who had been sent as the Messiah of the 
Jews, would become instead the Saviour of the Gentiles — 
if the Jews rejected him and his message. And he now 
said to the centurion : 

' ' Go thy way ; and as thou hast believed, so be it done 
unto thee. ' ' 

The centurion went away and returned to his own 
house, and when he entered in at the door he saw his serv- 
ant standing before him — completely cured. The promise 
of Jesus had been fulfilled. The great faith of the cen- 
turion had received its due reward. It is always thus 
with those whose faith is perfect. 

At this time Jesus had not yet chosen all of his twelve 
disciples. One by one, and two by two, he selected them 
from among the men he met. The essential qualities he 
looked for in those who were to be his companions and 
helpers, were simplicity of faith, a loving heart, and 
strength of character. 



THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 121 

The names of the twelve apostles were: Peter and 
Andrew, James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, 
Matthew the publican, James the son of Alphseus (some- 
times called James the lesser, to distinguish him from 
James the brother of John), Thaddaeus, Simon the Ca- 
naanite, and Judas Iscariot. We suppose that the reason 
why Jesus chose twelve apostles instead of some other num- 
ber, was because this number was that of the twelve an- 
cient Tribes of Israel. 

There are charming stories told of how he called this 
man and that from his ordinary occupation, and bade 
them follow him. 

Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, who were among 
the first of his disciples, he had seen one day fishing in 
the sea of Galilee. Jesus was walking on the shore, and 
when he saw the two brothers casting their net into the 
sea, he said to them : 

' ' Come ye after me, and I will make you to become 
fishers of men." 

And straightway they had left their nets and followed 
him. 

That same day he had called James and John, the 
sons of Zebedee. These two were also fishermen, as was 
their father, and as Jesus had walked along the shore of 
the lake with Peter and Andrew, he had seen James and 
John in their ship, mending their net. And when Jesus 
told them to follow him and be his disciples, they had 
left their father in the ship with the hired servants, and 
had followed him. 

It was also in Capernaum that Jesus called Matthew 
the publican. In Palestine a publican was a tax-collector, 
not, as in England, the keeper of a public-house. As the 
taxes demanded by the Romans were severe, and their 
collection was sometimes made with difficulty, these offi- 



122 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

cials were hated by the Jews, who classed them with sin- 
ners and outcasts. 

Jesus, who had none of this prejudice, in passing 
along the road with his disciples saw Matthew sitting at 
the receipt of customs. The man's face was honest, his 
eyes clear and intelligent, for it was he to whom we owe 
the best record we have of the actual sayings of Jesus. 
With that swift intuition which never failed him, the 
Master recognised in this publican one of those souls which 
could be used for the service of God, and he said to him : 

"Follow me." 

Matthew needed no second bidding. He had seen 
Jesus before and had heard him speak, and the stories 
which were told of the Nazarene had fired the imagination 
of the tax-collector. He, too, would learn of the king- 
dom of heaven, and would experience for himself that 
love of God and of his fellowmen which made the faces of 
Jesus and his intimate followers shine with such a soft 
and radiant light. And he rose up from the place where 
he was sitting and followed Jesus, leaving everything 
behind him. 

And Matthew made a great feast in his house, in 
honour of Jesus ; and when the Master and his disciples 
sat down at the table, there was a great company of pub- 
licans and others who sat down with them. 

But the scribes and Pharisees, who in Capernaum as 
elsewhere were always complaining about the democratic 
ways of Jesus, now murmured against the disciples, say- 
ing to them : 

' ' Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sin- 
ners?" 

"They that are whole need not a physician," replied 
Jesus; "but they that are sick. I am not come to call 
the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 



THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 123 

The scribes and Pharisees, who had come into the 
house of Matthew out of curiosity, now looked at the table, 
laden with meat and fruit and pleasant drinks. They were 
astonished, having an idea that prophets and religious 
teachers should despise all pleasure, especially that of 
wholesome food. And they said to Jesus : 

"Why do the disciples of John the Baptist fast often, 
and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Phari- 
sees; while thine eat and drink?" 

Jesus looked around at the pleasant company of his 
disciples, and smiled. They were so happy to be with 
him! And he said to the complaining Pharisees and 
scribes : 

' ' Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, 
while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will 
come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from 
them, and then shall they fast in those days." 

The disciples who heard these words caught their 
breath. Could it be, they asked themselves, that Jesus 
would ever be taken away from them? Though they had 
only been with him so short a time, it seemed to them 
now that they could not live without him. For he gave 
to their lives a vivid meaning and a purpose — and they 
loved him so! But the time was not come when Jesus 
wished them to dwell upon the final tragedy of his mis- 
sion; he wanted them to be happy now, and the smile he 
gave them restored their peace of mind. 

More and more the people of Capernaum gathered 
about Jesus, and men began to come from other cities to 
see him and to hear him talk and to be healed by him. 
He could not be alone now, even in the home of Peter, 
and one morning he arose very early, a long time before 
daylight, and went away into a solitary place and there 
prayed to his Father in heaven. The world was wrapped 



124 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

in that great stillness which precedes the dawn, while the 
birds are yet asleep, and the stars still twinkle in the dark 
sky. It was so sweet to Jesus — this being alone with 
God. Though to his friends he was the Master, the 
greatest one of earth with power before undreamed of, 
when he came to his Father in heaven he was like a little 
child. 

He prayed alone there a long time, in the stillness of 
the night, until the stars paled, and the dark sky became 
a pearly grey, and the waking birds twittered in the trees, 
and in the east a rosy glow crept slowly upward from the 
still unrisen sun. 

When the dawn was fully come, the disciples of Jesus, 
who had been seeking for him, found him alone in that 
solitary place with his face upraised to the sky and to 
the Father. And they said to him : 

' ' Master, all men seek for thee. ' ' 

The spirit of Jesus came back from communion with 
heaven to the work which lay before him on the earth. 
And he said to his disciples : 

"Come, let us go into the next town, that I may preach 
there also ; for therefore came I forth. ' ' 

Followed by his friends, he left the solitary place and 
prepared to journey into other cities. As he came out 
upon the road where the multitude was, one of the scribes 
— a man very different to the others, one who loved and 
obeyed the ancient law as well as copied it — came up to 
him and said: 

' ' Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. ' ' 

Jesus answered: 

' ' The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have 
nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. ' ' 

For he wanted those who followed him to follow for 
love's sake only, without hope of earthly reward. His was 



THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 125 

a mission of poverty and homelessness, a pilgrimage in 
quest of the kingdom of God. The Bible does not tell us 
whether or not the scribe followed the Master, but we 
believe he did. 

So the little band of comrades left Capernaum, the 
city near the lake which Jesus loved, and went into other 
towns, that the Master might tell the dwellers in those 
towns his beautiful story of a God who was their Father, 
and of that coming time when all men should be brothers 
in the kingdom of heaven. 



CHAPTEK XI 

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 

It was oil a mountain not far from Capernaum that 
Jesus preached his most famous sermon. 

Wherever he went now he was surrounded by crowds 
of people, for his charm and sweetness drew men after 
him whether they willed to follow him or not. Though 
they could not have told, perhaps, what attracted them so 
powerfully to this young teacher with the shining eyes, it 
was really the love that was in his heart for all beings 
which stirred a responsive love in other hearts. It is 
always so — even with lesser men. 

His twelve disciples now went with him everywhere. 
They surrounded him with an aureole of faith. The solid 
strength of Peter, the quiet goodness of James, the perfect 
comprehension of John for all the teachings of his Master, 
and the devotion of the nine others, were for Jesus an 
abiding help ; while he was to them the living realisation 
of God's love for the world. 

With his disciples Jesus went upon the mountain, and 
the multitude of people followed him. It was a perfect 
day; the air was pure and the sky a cloudless blue. Most 
days in Galilee are perfect days. The peaceful wandering 
life which the Master enjoyed with his friends, sleeping 
often under the open sky, could not have been lived in a 
harsher climate. 

Jesus stood upon the mountain, and the people grouped 
themselves below him. He had taken his place on a rock, 
127 



128 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

a little above the nearest of his listeners; and as he stood 
there, tall and slender in white garments, his head was 
outlined against the vivid blue of the sky. To the mul- 
titude gazing up at him, he seemed a being from another 
world. They were accustomed to the dry teaching of the 
scribes, untouched by ardour or imagination; but the ex- 
pression of a new and living faith fell from the lips of 
Jesus, and they listened intently. Slowly he spoke, that 
the meaning of every word he uttered might come home 
to them. He said : 

' ' Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven. 

' ' Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be com- 
forted. 

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness : for they shall be filled. 

' ' Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. 

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see 
God. 

' ' Blessed are the peace-makers : for they shall be called 
the children of God. 

' ' Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous- 
ness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and 
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely, for my sake. 

"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your 
reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets 
which were before you. ' ' 

These beautiful verses are now called the Beatitudes. 
We read them in a book, and even in cold black and white 
they seem to be alive; so we can imagine the feeling of 
those who heard them for the first time, heard them 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 129 

spoken in the clear and thrilling voice of Jesus himself, 
standing there on that mountain, his eyes aflame with 
thought, his form outlined against the brilliant blue of 
the Galilean sky. 

When Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart," 
nearly every one in that vast multitude was filled with a 
desire to be again as a little child — simple and pure in 
heart. And for the moment they were so, because the 
personal influence of the Master was upon them, lifting 
them out of their ordinary selves and filling them with 
his own spirit. 

The scribes had never told them that they were blessed 
when men reviled and persecuted them because of their 
faith in God. Of course — now they came to think of it 
— the great prophets whom they honoured and whose say- 
ings were always on their lips, had been so persecuted in 
their lifetime. The words, "but things were different in 
those days ! ' ' which we so often hear from men and women 
who would make excuses for their own failure to follow 
the teaching of Jesus, had often been heard in Galilee 
with regard to the ancient prophets. For the Jews did 
not try to live like the prophets, any more than people in 
our day really try to live like Jesus, and they sometimes 
had the same half-guilty feelings which we have, and for 
the same reason. 

Jesus told them that they (the Jews) were the salt of 
the earth; but if salt had lost its savour, he asked them, 
wherewith should it be salted? For the Jews at that time 
had lost their savour — the true faith and enthusiasm which 
had carried their ancestors through forty years of wander- 
ing with Moses in the wilderness, and had brought them 
at last into the Promised Land. 

Jesus said to them : 

1 ' Let your light so shine before men, that they may 



130 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in 
heaven. ' ' 

The Jews of the olden days had worshipped God as 
the great Jehovah, but they had not known that He was 
also a loving Father. It was Jesus who gave that supreme 
idea to the world ; and when this multitude of people who 
had followed him to the mountain heard him talk about 
their Father in heaven, their hearts swelled within them. 
They wondered why they had never known before that 
they were the beloved children of the Creator. 

Jesus did not wish any of his listeners to think, be- 
cause the faith he taught them was so much more loving 
than the religion which they had known before, that he 
sought to do away with Judaism. On the contrary, he 
said to them : 

' ' Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the 
prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth 
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the 
law, till all be fulfilled. 

"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least 
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called 
the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall 
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the 
kingdom of heaven. 'For I say unto you, That except 
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the 
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." 

As they looked at Jesus, standing there against the 
blue sky, they thought how different he was to the 
scribes and Pharisees. And he wanted them to be more 
righteous than their harsh old teachers ! Well, they would 
attempt to be. They, too, would try to love and under- 
stand the Father in heaven. If it was his love for the 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 131 

Father which made Jesus so much more beautiful than 
other men, they wanted also to feel that love, that they 
might be like him. It seemed to them that they had 
already entered upon a new and keener life. They drew 
long breaths of the pure mountain air, tingling with joy 
from head to feet. 

Jesus went on to explain to them certain points of the 
old law, making them understand that the interpretation 
of the scribes and Pharisees was insufficient. He said : 

' ' Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, 
Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in 
danger of the judgment : 

' ' But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with 
his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judg- 
ment : and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall 
be in danger of the council : but whosoever shall say, Thou 
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. ' ' 

The harsh Jews were always calling each other fools, 
and almost every day they were angry with somebody — 
with or without cause ; yet they brought gifts to the altar 
in accordance with the law, as if by many burnt offerings 
they could buy their peace with God. Jesus now said to 
them: 

' ' If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remem- 
berest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave 
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be 
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy 
gift." 

Surely this was a new interpretation of the law — this 
counsel of brotherly tolerance ! And how easy it seemed 
at the moment, while Jesus stood there before them ! As 
they listened to the Master's words, old Jews smiled at 
each other, when yesterday they would have frowned or 
looked askance. The whole of that great multitude was 



132 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

like one being, united by one overmastering idea — the 
idea of brotherhood. And how happy they were ! They 
had never before realised what true happiness was. Their 
eyes shone. 

Jesus now explained other points in the old law, and 
every rule he touched upon he illuminated. Among 
other things, he told them : 

' ' Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth : 

"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but 
whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to 
him the other also. 

' ' And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take 
away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 

"And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go 
with him twain. 

' ' Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that 
would borrow of thee turn thou not away. ' ' 

The listeners gasped. ' ' An eye for an eye, and a tooth 
for a tooth," had always seemed to them a just law; but 
now they realised how hateful it was. If all other men 
were their brothers, as Jesus said, and if their enemies 
were the children of God the same as they were, of course 
they must forgive each other. Gradually it dawned upon 
the minds of those Jews that if they could follow the 
advice of Jesus, "Resist not evil," by that very passive 
endurance they would make evil against themselves im- 
possible on the part of their f ellowmen ; that non-resist- 
ance was the most powerful of all resistance. 

As Jesus paused a moment to let this new idea sink 
deep into the minds of his listeners, some of them gave 
little joyful cries of comprehension. And Jesus smiled 
down upon them, feeling that they were coming very near 
to the kingdom of heaven. And now he added : 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 133 

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt 
love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 

' ' That ye may be the children of your Father which 
is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on 
the unjust. ' ' 

Again those little cries of joyful comprehension fol- 
lowed the words of Jesus. They had not before understood 
that the gifts of Nature, bestowed on good and evil men 
alike, were God's way of saying that all beings were His 
children. Even an earthly father did not discriminate 
too much between an erring son and one that was obedi- 
ent; and when Jesus reminded them now that God did 
not so discriminate, in sending his blessings of sunshine 
and of rain, it made God seem to be in very truth their 
Father. Jesus said: 

"If ye love them which love you, what reward have 
ye? Do not even the publicans the same? 

"And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye 
more than others? Do not even the publicans so? 

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is 
in heaven is perfect. ' ' 

The Jews were in the habit of giving alms to the poor, 
but they often gave in an ostentatious way, looking 
around to see if their neighbours observed how generous 
they were. Jesus now advised them : 

' ' Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to 
be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your 
Father which is in heaven. 

"Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound 
a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the syna- 



134 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

gogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of 
men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 

"But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand 
know what thy right hand doeth : 

' ' That thine alms may be in secret : and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. ' ' 

Then the Master spoke to them about prayer. With 
the Jews prayer was a form, almost a social obligation. 
If a man was not known to pray, he lost caste among 
his neighbours. This idea of prayer was revolting to 
Jesus, who lived in constant communion with his Father 
in heaven. 

"When thou prayest," he said, "thou shalt not be as 
the hypocrites are : for they love to pray standing in the 
synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may 
be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their 
reward. 

' ' But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, 
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret 
shall reward thee openly. 

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the 
heathen do : for they think that they shall be heard for 
their much speaking. 

' ' Be not ye therefore like unto them : for your Father 
knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. ' ' 

Then, standing there upon the mountain and looking 
down at the upraised, earnest faces of those men and 
women, the Master taught them the Lord's Prayer, which 
generation after generation of Christians have repeated 
daily for nearly two thousand years, that prayer which is 
the most beautiful supplication ever formed in words, in- 
cluding in its brief lines all that man needs to say to 
God in giving himself utterly to Him : 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 135 

' ' Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed ~be thy 
name. 

1 ' Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as 
it is in heaven. 

1 ' Give us this day our daily bread. 

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

u A?id lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 
evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
glory, for ever. Amen." 

When, in a Christian church, we hear a great congre- 
gation repeat the Lord's Prayer as with one voice, we 
think of that first time when it was spoken upon the 
mountain, under the blue sky of Galilee, by the Master 
himself. 

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." 
The difference between this supplication and the old 
Jewish rule, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," 
is the difference between Christianity and Judaism. For, 
as Jesus said that day : 

"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly 
Father will also forgive you : 

' ' But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither 
will your Father forgive your trespasses." 

And he told them also that when they fasted they 
should not be of a sad countenance, like those hypocrites 
who disfigure their faces, that they might appear unto 
men to fast; but that they should rather anoint their heads 
and wash their faces, that men should not know they were 
fasting, but that only God should know. For God, who 
saw in secret, would reward them openly. And Jesus 
said: 

' ' Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where 
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break 
through and steal: 



136 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

' ' But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where 
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do 
not break through nor steal : 

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be 
also." 

"No man can serve two masters," Jesus said, "for 
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he 
will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot 
serve God and mammon. 

' ' Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your 
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for 
your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more 
than meat, and the body than raiment? 

' ' Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither 
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly 
Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
they? 

' ' Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit 
unto his stature? 

"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider 
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither 
do they spin: 

' ' And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all 
his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

' ' Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, 
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall 
he not much more clothe you, ye of little faith? 

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we 
eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be 
clothed? 

" (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for 
your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all 
these things. 

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 137 

righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto 
you. 

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the 
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Suffi- 
cient unto the day is the evil thereof. ' ' 

This teaching was very sweet to the Galileans, for 
their lives were simple and their wants were few; but there 
were also upon the mountain that day certain men from 
Judaea, where Nature was less kind than in the north ; and 
though these men were charmed with the teaching of Jesus, 
his advice to take no thought for the morrow seemed to 
them a trifle visionary — even as it seems to some in our 
own day whose worldly wisdom is greater than their 
faith. 

The Jews were very severe in their judgment one of 
another, and many of them performed good actions not 
to be seen of God, but to be seen of men. Jesus said to 
them now: 

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. 

' ' For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged : 
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to 
you again. ' ' 

Here and there a man in the multitude glanced un- 
easily at his neighbour, suddenly conscience-smitten for 
having judged him unkindly. How had he dared to 
fancy that his neighbour's motives were less pure than his 
own? 

Then Jesus talked to them about their relations with 
God, and how they should ask the Father in heaven for 
blessings, with perfect faith that they would receive them. 
He said: 

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : 

"For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that 



138 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be 
opened. 

"Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask 
bread, will he give him a stone? 

"Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, how much more shall your Father 
which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask 
him?" 

Then, having spoken of their relations with God, Jesus 
now spoke again of their relations with their fellowmen. 
And he gave them the Golden Kule, which Christians 
since that day have held up before themselves as the high- 
est ideal of life: 

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
to you, do ye even so to them. " 

How simple and how beautiful it sounds, and yet 
how few there are of us who follow it ! 

Jesus was always fond of using figures of speech and 
of talking in symbols. This gave to his teachings a great 
charm, and made his words easy to remember. 

"Enter ye in at the strait gate," he said; "for wide 
is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruc- 
tion, and many there be which go in thereat : 

"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, 
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. ' ' 

Many other things Jesus taught them that day upon 
the mountain, so that it seemed to some of his listeners 
that they had learned enough to guide their ways a whole 
life long — yet they desired ever to hear more and more. 
At the end of his sermon he said : 

' ' Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth 
them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his 
house upon a rock : 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 139 

"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and 
beat upon that house ; and it fell not : for it was founded 
upon a rock. 

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, 
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, 
which built his house upon the sand : 

"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and 
the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell : 
and great was the fall of it. ' ' 

When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were 
astonished at the doctrine he had preached. Though 
based upon the old Jewish faith, it was all new and 
wonderful to them. A God who was a loving Father! 
"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors!" 
' ' Judge not, that ye be not judged ! " " Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you ! " It seemed to the people that these sayings had 
power to change the world. 

And they were equally astonished at the way of the 
Master's teaching, for he spoke as one having authority, 
and not as the scribes. The scribes repeated old sayings 
in a dull and lifeless way; while the words of Jesus were 
like flames, illuminating everything they touched. 

As long as they lived, these people remembered him 
as he had looked that day on the mountain, standing 
upon a rock, tall and slender in white garments, his head 
outlined against the vivid blue of the Galilean sky. 



CHAPTER XII 

STILLING THE STORM 

Jesus came down with his disciples to the lake of 
Gennesaret. It was late in the day, the sun was gone, 
the rolling waters were a deep, deep blue, dark clouds 
moved swiftly across the heavens, there was a chill in the 
air and the wind was rising. 

"Let us pass over unto the other side," said Jesus to 
his friends, for he wanted to bring his message of a lov- 
ing Father to those who dwelt on the eastern shore. 

The lake of Gennesaret is six miles wide, and they 
found a boat for the crossing, a boat with oars and a sail. 
Even as they launched it, a little wave slapped over the 
side, wetting the hands of those who were by the rail. 

"There is going to be a storm," they said. But the 
Master had expressed a wish to cross the lake, and no 
one dreamed of suggesting that they wait until the storm 
had passed. 

And other smaller boats set out with theirs, for in 
the multitude that followed Jesus there were some so 
enthusiastic that they would have gone after him had he 
started out to cross the unknown sea, instead of the 
little lake of Gennesaret when a tempest was brewing 
among the hills beyond. Had they not heard him preach 
the Sermon on the Mount? 

The boat of the Master and his twelve disciples had 
gone only a little way from the shore when a terrific gust 
of wind nearly whipped the sail from the mast; but Jesus 
141 



142 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

paid no attention to the raging of the elements. He had 
been preaching and healing all that day, and he was 
weary. He went and laid himself down in the stern of 
the boat, and placing his head upon a cushion which was 
there, he fell into a deep and untroubled sleep. His dis- 
ciples gazed at him through the gathering darkness. It 
seemed so strange to them that he should fall asleep at 
such a time — like a child upon the bosom of its mother. 
Would he sleep like that all the way? they wondered — or 
would the boat be able to go all the way? It seemed im- 
possible, if the wind and the waters continued their mad 
struggle. 

Wave after wave washed over the side. The mast 
rocked and groaned, and they were obliged to lower the 
sail. Four of the men took to the oars, and one of them 
tried to bail out the water which filled the bottom ; but for 
every bucketful which he threw over the side, two bucket- 
fuls poured in. The rain began to fall in whirling sheets, 
and the force of the wind itself was like a wall of water 
against which the oars were powerless to make headway. 
At last they gave up rowing, in despair, and resigned 
themselves to the will of the tempest. The wind was not 
blowing them across the lake, neither back to the shore 
they had left, but southward, and they knew not where 
they were. 

The day was quite gone, and darkness covered the 
waters; but now and then a vivid flash of lightning showed 
them the waves, which were dashing wild and high, and 
in those brief flashes they also saw the faces of one an- 
other. Pallid they sat, with set lips and haggard eyes. 
And still Jesus slept in the stern of the boat. 

At last a wave greater than any that had come be- 
fore washed over the edge, and even Peter cried out in 
terror. No, they would not wait any longer. Surely 



STILLING THE STORM 143 

the Master would wish to be awakened ! And they cried 
to him : 

"Master, Master, awake! Carest thou not that we 
perish?" 

Jesus arose to his feet, standing in the water which 
partly filled the boat. His garments, even the cushion 
upon which he had lain, were soaked. But he uttered no 
exclamation, and to the frightened disciples it seemed as 
if he were still unaware of the danger which menaced 
them. 

Then he raised his voice, and speaking to the wind 
and the waves he commanded them to be still. His tones 
were clear and ringing, yet there was in them a thrill of 
love, as if the tempest he rebuked were a living and way- 
ward being which knew not the harm it wrought. 

"Peace, be still!" 

As he spoke a vivid flash of lightning illumined the 
sea, and by its light the disciples saw the face of the 
Master. All their lives they remembered him as he had 
looked at that moment. It seemed to them that they had 
seen the face of God Himself. 

"Peace, be still!" 

Was the wind veering? They no longer felt it in their 
faces. The waves ceased to wash over the edge of the 
boat, which now rode the water steadily. The shrieking 
of the tempest died to a gentle whisper, the rain ceased 
to fall. In a briefer time than they had taken to arouse 
the Master, the storm was stilled, and there was a great 
calm. So quiet it was that they could hear the tinkle of 
a sheep-bell on the far-away shore. 

The disciples were silent and amazed. All their fear 
had left them, and the calm which had descended upon 
the lake possessed their own souls, too. Jesus went back 
to his place in the stern of the boat, and sat down. For 



144 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

a little time he said nothing, and they knew not what to 
say. Then he spoke: 

•'Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no 
faith?" 

They could not answer him, but they said to one an- 
other : 

"What manner of man is this, that even the wind and 
the sea obey him?" 

Again they took up the oars, and rowed steadily toward 
the other shore. There was no beacon light to guide 
them, and the night was still dark; but now they knew 
that they would reach the goal — wherever it might be. 
Why had they been afraid? Was it indeed true, they 
wondered, that they were of little faith? How peacefully 
Jesus had slept! And had they not awakened him, and 
had he not stilled the storm, they felt that somehow all 
would have been well. For he was the Son of God, and 
how could he be drowned, or die in any other way, until 
his work on earth was finished? Though they could not 
see his face, yet they could feel his eyes upon them in the 
darkness, and they knew that the eyes were full of com- 
prehending love. They might be fearful, they might be 
lacking in faith, but the Master could never despise them. 
They would try still harder to be worthy of his love, being 
certain of his sympathy and forgiveness when they failed. 
That is not the way of the world's incentives; but Jesus 
had said that his kingdom was not of this world. 

In a little while even the clouds which hid the sky 
seemed to melt and pass away, and the stars shone out 
clear and tranquil above their heads. When the growing 
light enabled them to see the face of Jesus, it wore the 
look they had imagined in the darkness — soft and patient, 
with a great love in the eyes. 

And when, after long rowing, they drew near to the 



STILLING THE STORM 145 

farther shore, they heard some one singing on the hills 
beyond. The voice came to them out of the mystery of 
the distance, as if some unknown soul were calling its 
love to the Master and to them. They never learned whose 
was the voice which had sung that night, on the farther 
shore of the lake; but often in the future, when for a 
moment they doubted the heart of humanity, a swift 
memory came to them of the tones of that unseen singer, 
and they remembered that out of the storm comes the calm, 
and out of the mystery of the distance the singing soul of 
the world. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS 

There lived in Capernaum a ruler of the synagogue 
named Jairus, who had a little daughter that he dearly- 
loved. The child was twelve years old and she was beau- 
tiful, with long, curling golden locks and soft dark eyes. 
It seemed to the father and mother that never since the 
beginning of the world, had there been born a child so 
wonderful as theirs. Yet, though they loved her so, they 
had not spoiled her with unwise indulgence; for she was 
gentle and obedient, and seemed to have no desire save to 
make her parents happy all day long. 

But the girl was slender and frail, and the one anxiety 
of the father and mother was lest some cold wind should 
blow upon her too roughly, or the hot sun of summer shine 
too fiercely upon her little head. If any harm should 
come to her, they told each other, they would feel that 
they themselves had lived too long upon the earth. There 
is nothing which gives so pure a happiness as love ; but 
they who love one being too intensely live always with 
their door wide open to fear. 

The things we greatly dread always come to us sooner 
or later, and the summer when the little girl was twelve 
years old she sickened of a fever and lay tossing and 
helpless on her bed. The father and mother knew not 
what to do; they could only gaze at each other and at 
their child with wide, despairing eyes. The best physi- 
cians of the city came and looked at her and went away 
147 



148 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

again, leaving remedies behind them — but no hope. And 
Jairus, who had already learned from Jesus about the 
Father in heaven, prayed all day and all night long, even 
promising the half of his possessions to the poor if God 
would spare him this one treasure. But she grew steadily 
worse. 

"If Jesus of Nazareth were only here!" said Jairus 
every hour. But the Master had gone over to the other 
side of the lake, and no one knew just when he would 
return. 

At last the news came to Jairus that one of his neigh- 
bours had seen Simon Peter in Capernaum. The heart of 
the stricken father leaped with hope, for wherever one saw 
Peter, it was certain that Jesus was not far away. Leav- 
ing his little daughter in the care of her weary mother, 
the ruler of the synagogue went out to look for the 
Master. 

He found him in one of the streets of the city, sur- 
rounded as usual by a multitude of people. Making his 
way with difficulty through the crowd, Jairus threw him- 
self at the feet of Jesus, crying: 

"My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray 
thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be 
healed ; and she shall live. ' ' 

Jesus remembered the daughter of Jairus, for he loved 
all children, and knew by name many of the little ones of 
Capernaum. He turned his face at once toward the 
father's house. But he could only go slowly, so great 
was the throng of people which crowded forward seeking 
to have speech with him ; for when the news had come 
that Jesus of Nazareth had returned from the country of 
the Gadarenes, the whole city had flocked forth to meet 
him. 

Now it often happens that when a man sets out to do 



THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS 149 

one good action, he does another unconsciously by the 
way, and it was so with Jesus that morning. In the 
crowd that pressed about him there was a poor woman 
who had been sick for twelve years with a seemingly in- 
curable malady. She had suffered much from many 
physicians, and had spent all the money that she had in 
trying to be cured; but she had grown steadily worse 
instead of better, and it seemed to her now that she had 
but a nicker of life in her worn and wasted body. 

When she learned that Jesus was in Capernaum, she 
had summoned all the strength that she had left, and had 
gone out to find him, saying to herself : 

"If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. " 

Coming behind him in the crowd, she reached out her 
hands and touched the hem of his garment. In her heart 
there was a great faith, and as soon as she had touched 
him she felt in her body that the terrible disease had left 
her. 

Jesus had not seen her; but he suddenly felt that the 
virtue of healing had gone out from him, and turning 
about in the press of people, he asked : 

1 ' Who touched my clothes ? ' ' 

His disciples, who were beside him, pointed to the 
hundreds around, and said: 

' ' Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest 
thou, Who touched me?" 

But Jesus wished to know whom he had cured, for he 
dearly loved all those who had been healed by him. In 
giving them of his own strength and health he made them 
forever a part of himself. 

And the woman, fearing and trembling, and knowing 
what was done in her, came forward and fell down at the 
feet of the Master, telling him all the truth. He said to 
her: 



150 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made 
thee whole. ' ' 

Then, rejoicing, she went back to her own house. And 
from that day forward, as long as she lived, she talked to 
her friends about Jesus of Nazareth, trying to give them 
also the great faith which had made her whole. 

Jairus still stood beside Jesus, who was coming to 
heal his little daughter. But even as the Master had 
spoken to the woman, there came certain friends from the 
house of the ruler of the synagogue, and they said to 
Jairus : 

' ' Thy daughter is dead ; trouble not the Master. ' ' 

With the shock of his grief the face of Jairus became 
pallid as death itself. He would have fallen to the 
ground, but Jesus quickly took him by the hand, saying: 

' ' Be not afraid, only believe. ' ' 

The hope of a great love needs but little to feed upon, 
and the eyes of Jairus lost their despairing look. What 
did the Master mean? What could he do, if the child 
were already dead? Silently, stumbling as he walked, 
the poor man followed Jesus to the little house where all 
his hopes lay stricken. 

The master permitted no one to go with them but Peter 
and James and John. Had it been possible he would 
have performed all his cures in secret, for already the very 
fame he had achieved by means of them was hampering 
his work. In the country of the Gadarenes, because of 
his miracles, the frightened people had asked him to go 
away. 

As they drew near to the home of Jairus, they heard 
the sound of the minstrels who had come to make sad 
music in the house of death. And coming nearer still, 
they heard the wailing of women, above the hoarser 
voices of men. Jesus, standing on the threshold of the 



THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS 151 

house, looked in upon the mourning company. And he 
said: 

"Why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is 
not dead, but sleepeth. ' ' 

And they laughed him to scorn, for some there are 
always who can deride the words of wisdom, even in the 
presence of death. 

But Jesus made all the people go out of the house, the 
minstrels and the relatives and the neighbours; for he 
did not wish to be hampered by the disbelief of others in 
the work he had to do. When those who had been bewail- 
ing the maiden's death were all outside the house, Jesus 
closed the door softly after them ; then he took Peter and 
James and John, and the father and mother of the child, 
and passed with them into the chamber where she lay. 
The faith of his own disciples and the love of the parents 
were sources of equal power. 

The dead girl lay as if she were indeed asleep. It 
seemed impossible that anything so fragile and so fair 
could have suffered the great change which strong men 
dread. Her little hands were folded upon her breast, and 
some one had laid between them a white lily, of the kind 
which Jesus loved and had himself so often gathered 
when a child. Her golden curls lay over the white pil- 
low, the long dark lashes of her closed eyes cast faint 
shadows upon her pallid cheeks. But what made the 
watchers catch their breath, was not the innocent beauty 
of the dead child, but the peculiar smile upon her face. 
It was a smile of mystery and strangeness, as if some 
lovely secret unknown to the wisest of the living had 
been revealed to her in the realm of death. 

But as they looked from the face of the child to the 
face of Jesus, the parents and the three disciples saw on 
his lips the same smile. Whatever the secret was which 



152 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

wrapped the dead girl in its mystery, that secret was 
shared by the Master. Only for a moment he stood there 
looking down at her and smiling, for the grief of the 
parents was heavy on his heart. 

Then he bent and took her by the hand, and as his 
fingers closed over hers they closed also over the stem of 
the white lily, so that the Master and the child both held 
it. The disciples could smell its strong fragrance. In a 
voice low and tender, yet thrilling with intensity, Jesus 
said: 

' ' Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. ' ' 

And the spirit of the child came back again to the 
form it had quitted but a little while before. Her dark 
lashes fluttered, her brown eyes opened wide, and obedi- 
ent to the Master's voice as she had always been to the 
voice of her mother, she arose and stood before them, still 
holding the white lily in her hand. 

The parents were too happy to say anything. They 
only clasped their child with loving arms, while the tears 
rolled down their faces. 

Jesus told them to give the damsel something to eat, 
and the mother hurried to obey him. The necessity of 
ministering to the child thus saved her from the dan- 
gerous effect of too much joy, after her hopeless grief. 

And Jesus told the father and mother, and also his 
three friends, that they should not proclaim the miracle 
he had wrought. ' ' Tell no man, ' ' he said. 

Then, leaving the family of Jairus alone with their 
happiness, the Master beckoned to his disciples and went 
back to the waiting multitude. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE MESSENGERS 

Now for several months the disciples had been con- 
stantly with Jesus. They had listened to his beautiful 
talks about the Father in heaven, the kingdom of God 
that was coming to the world, and the love which men 
should have for one another. And almost every day dur- 
ing those months they had seen him heal the sick and 
cast out devils from the insane, and do all other kinds of 
good works. But now the Master wanted his twelve 
trusted friends to do these things themselves, to preach 
as he had preached, and to heal the sick and afflicted. 
Heretofore they had received freely, now he wished them 
to give freely to others of all that he had bestowed on 
them. For Jesus knew that no man really possesses an 
idea, or a faith — or possibly anything else — until he has 
given it away. 

We can easily believe that the disciples were appalled 
at first by the new responsibility. To stand up before 
strange people and preach ! To lay their hands upon the 
sick and command them to be well! To speak with 
authority of the Father in heaven and His kingdom! 
They were simple men, these Galilean fishermen and the 
others, they were not even deeply learned in the letter of 
the Jewish scriptures ; and now the Master told them to 
assume a position even above that of the scholarly 
scribes. Would men listen to them — especially in the 
towns where they were known? 
153 



154 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Jesus told them that wherever they went they were to 
declare: " The.kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

And he said that they should provide nothing for 
themselves, save only a staff to help them along the hard 
roads; that they should take neither gold nor silver, nor 
even brass in their purses ; that they should wear but one 
coat, and put sandals on their feet instead of shoes. For, 
said Jesus, in regard to their penniless mission, "the 
workman is worthy of his meat, ' ' and they were to ask 
their food of the strangers to whom they brought the 
message of Jesus. 

He told them that whenever they came into any house, 
they should salute it, saying, ' ' Peace be with you ; ' ' and 
that, if the house was worthy, peace would indeed come 
to it, but if the house was unworthy, the peace would 
return to themselves. And if any house or city would 
not receive them, they should in leaving shake the dust 
of it from off their feet, as a witness against those who 
had rejected the messengers of the Messiah. 

"Behold," said Jesus, "I send you forth as sheep in 
the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and 
harmless as doves. ' ' 

And he warned them that harm would sometimes 
come to them, that they would be arrested and brought 
before governors and councils; but they were not to take 
thought beforehand as to what they should say in their 
own defense, for the words would be given them in the 
hour when words were necessary. "It is not ye that 
speak," said Jesus, "but the Spirit of your Father which 
speaketh in you. ' ' 

The disciples trembled at the very thought of being 
themselves the mouthpiece of God. It seemed an honour 
too great for them. And though they knew that this mis- 
sion was the proof of their worthiness to be called apostles, 



THE MESSENGERS 155 

yet they would have postponed it. For grown men are 
often as timid as children when they enter upon some 
great work. The very strength of their desire to succeed 
makes them afraid. 

"What I tell ye in darkness," said Jesus, "that speak 
ye in light : and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye 
upon the housetops. . . . 

"Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, 
him will I confess also before my Father which is in 
heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will 
I also deny before* my Father which is in heaven. . . . 

"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not 
worthy of me : and he that loveth son or daughter more 
than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not 
his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me. 

"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that 
loseth his life for my sake shall find it. ' ' 

Always when Jesus spoke to his disciples like that 
they felt themselves grow strong. So long as his eyes 
were on them they were able to do anything, but how 
would it be when they were far away from him? The 
Master tried to make them understand and feel that while 
they were on his mission, they were indeed himself ', a part 
of him. And being a part of Jesus, they were also a part 
of the Father — the chosen messengers of God. He said: 

' ' He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that re- 
ceiveth me receiveth him that sent me. . . . 

"And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these 
little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, 
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. ' ' 

Though the disciples told themselves that they were 
working for love of Jesus and not for any personal reward, 
yet this promise comforted them, as it has comforted so 
many devoted souls since then. There are few sayings of 



156 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Jesus better known than this one, and many a cup of 
cold water, as well as more substantial things, has been 
given to the little ones of earth in remembrance of it. 
For the teacher who can embody his wisdom in sayings 
which are easily remembered, has made it impossible for 
the world of men ever to forget him or his teachings. 

Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, instead of 
singly, that they might strengthen and comfort each other 
by daily talks about the Master they had left behind. And 
also, when one of them stood up before strange multitudes 
and spoke about Jesus and the Father in heaven, there 
would be at least one person present who believed in him 
and in his message. For the Master understood the heart 
of man, and how it leans upon the sympathy of others. 

And the disciples were successful in their preaching. 
Hundreds listened to them almost everywhere they went 
— for did they not speak of the Master? They told the 
wonderful story of a Godmade man. Jesus could not 
have spoken of himself as they spoke of him, and men 
who had never seen the Master from Nazareth were thrilled 
with a desire to know the extraordinary man who could 
arouse such love in the hearts of his closest friends. 
Every day now, in seven different places, was some one 
telling about the Father in heaven and His love of the 
world; for Jesus also continued to travel about and to 
preach, taking with him as companions the new converts 
and the women disciples, his mother, Mary Magdalene, 
Salome the mother of James and John, and many others. 

But what thrilled each of the twelve disciples most 
was the first cure which he himself performed, his own 
first miracle of healing. They learned by trying, as all 
must learn, that they could lay their hands upon the sick 
and bring them back to health. The first time that each 
of them commanded disease to leave a sufferer, he was 



THE MESSENGERS 157 

obliged to forget himself entirely and to remember only 
that he was the messenger of Jesus. Had he thought of 
himself, he would have doubted his own power; but he 
could not doubt the power of Jesus. And so the cures 
were performed. 

We must remember that, before they had met Jesus, 
most of these men had been humble workers with their 
hands, and that now, after only a few months, they had 
become the famous teachers of a new and living religion. 
If a child were suddenly to become a man as great and 
powerful as the conqueror Napoleon, it would not seem 
stranger to him than it seemed to these Galileans when, 
in the quiet watches of the night, they bad time to think 
of themselves and of the change which had been wrought 
in them. But they could not become proud, because they 
always remembered that in comparison with Jesus they 
were as nothing, and that all the power they had they 
owed to him alone. 

Often, when some work that we have to do in the world 
seems beyond our courage, we think of those devoted 
fishermen, Peter and Andrew, James and John, standing 
up before the scholarly scribes and members of the san- 
hedrim, and teaching them. We could none of us find 
anything to do so difficult as that must have been at first 
for the disciples, because the learned ones among the 
Jews were very arrogant, and disposed to wrangle even 
with each other about minute points of the scriptures. 
But it was easy to teach the common people, the ignorant 
ones, those who were not contented with their lives; for 
to them the announcement of the kingdom of heaven was 
the promise of a time when they might receive all that 
they had missed in this world. And to them also the 
Father in heaven seemed nearer and sweeter than He 
seemed to the more prosperous ones. 



158 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

At last came the day when the disciples could return 
to Jesus. The allotted time of their mission was at an 
end, and from all parts of Galilee they came to the place 
which the Master had appointed. During every hour of 
their absence they had yearned to see Jesus, and now they 
were to see him. Would he praise them because they 
had done so much? Would he blame them because they 
had not done more? Now that their work was over, each 
man thought of little ways in which he might have bet- 
tered his own. 

One of them remembered a poor sick woman whom 
he could have healed, had he not forgotten that she was 
waiting for him, and was too shy to call attention to her- 
self. Another recalled the question of a Pharisee which 
he had answered thoughtlessly, perhaps giving a wrong 
impression of the teaching of Jesus. A third was trou- 
bled because he had neglected to speak at a certain place 
where several of the scribes were present, having been 
afraid of their superior smiles at his unscholarly lan- 
guage. Every one of them had something with which to 
reproach himself — for they were very humble in spirit, 
these messengers of the Master. 

But when the twelve men sat down to sup with Jesus 
on the evening of their return, and told him all that they 
had done, he declared that their labour had been good. 
And he called them faithful servants of the Father. 

The soft moon, which seems to shine more lovingly 
over Galilee than over other parts of the world, shone in 
through the little window of the chamber where they sat 
at meat, a gentle breeze came from the lake where the 
Master had stilled the storm, and the crickets chirped 
merrily in the grass outside the door. And in the hearts 
of the devoted messengers was the peace which passeth 
understanding. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE ANGEL OF THE POOL 

Jesus sometimes went up to Jerusalem to attend the 
Jewish feasts, because on those occasions there were many 
people gathered together from all parts of the country, 
and he could preach to them. The great Temple at Jeru- 
salem was the very centre of the Hebrew national life, as 
the great city of London is now the centre of all things 
English. But Jesus was never happy in Jerusalem as he 
was in his own Galilee. The cold and formal religion 
taught in the Temple repelled him. And the priests and 
scribes and Pharisees already disliked the young Galilean 
with the shining eyes, whom all the common people loved 
so much; but at present they only scoffed at him, and 
sought to throw discredit on his teaching. 

They remembered a rumour which had been spread 
abroad some months before, when John the Baptist had 
declared that this young Nazarene was greater than himself, 
even saying that Jesus was the Messiah. The priests and 
scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem had no great respect 
for John the Baptist — "the voice crying in the wilder- 
ness." To them he was only a visionary; yet they did 
not speak much against him, though he was so popular 
with the people, because they did not consider him dan- 
gerous to themselves. But this Jesus of Nazareth was 
different. He worried them. 

Now at Jerusalem there was a pool, called the pool of 
Bethesda, and it was very famous among the Jews; for 
159 



160 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

they believed that sometimes an angel came down from 
heaven and troubled the waters of the pool, and that who- 
ever first stepped into it after the angel had troubled the 
waters was made whole of any disease that he had. There 
were five porches about the pool, in which sick people 
waited for the sign of the angel; and when they saw the 
movement of the waters they hurried down, each trying 
to be the first to step in. Not every one who waited thus 
had really seen the angel ; but they had seen the troubling 
of the waters. A few there were who claimed to have 
seen the heavenly visitor himself, and of course their 
friends believed them, because they believed in the angel. 

The first Sabbath after Jesus came up to Jerusalem 
this time, he stood by the pool of Bethesda and gazed into 
the waters which were now still and untroubled. He was 
thinking of the work that he wished to do in the Holy 
City, where, though the priests and Pharisees were cold 
and skeptical, the common people believed in such celestial 
beings as the angel of this pool. John the beloved dis- 
ciple was with the Master, and it was he who afterward 
told the world what happened there. 

As Jesus raised his eyes from the waters, he saw an 
old man lying on a kind of mattress-bed in one of the five 
porches surrounding the pool. His face was wasted with 
disease and lined with age; but in his eyes there was a 
look of flaming eagerness, as he watched the unruffled 
surface of the waters. 

Jesus questioned him, and learned that he had been 
sick and nearly helpless for thirty-eight years — a longer 
time than the Master himself had lived upon the earth. 

"Wilt thou be made whole?" Jesus asked, with his 
radiant smile. 

The unfortunate man seemed to gather a little strength 
even from the nearness of the Master. Raising himself 



THE ANGEL OF THE POOL 161 

upon one thin elbow, he looked at Jesus intently, and 
said: 

' ' Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to 
put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another 
steppeth down before me." 

"Bise," said Jesus, "take up thy bed, and walk." 

The man did not seem even surprised, so perfect was 
the Master's control of his will. Obediently as a child, 
he arose to his feet, bent down and lifted his bed upon 
his back, and walked — as easily as before the great in- 
firmity had stricken him, thirty-eight years ago. 

Turning to thank the stranger who had so miraculously 
cured him, he was surprised to see that Jesus had disap- 
peared, swallowed up by the crowd which was passing by 
the place; for there were always crowds in Jerusalem at 
the time of the great feasts. 

The healed man sang with joy, when he fully realised 
that he could walk. It was the happiest Sabbath day 
which he had ever known, and the bed upon his back 
seemed light as thistledown. But he had only gone a 
short way when he was stopped by a company of Jews, 
who regarded him with dark and scowling faces. He 
wondered what was the trouble. But the Jews did not 
give him time to question them: they said sternly: 

"It is the Sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to 
carry thy bed." The Jews had very rigid laws about 
the Sabbath. 

"He that made me whole," answered the man, "the 
same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. ' ' 

But when the Jews demanded to know who had dared 
to tell him to break the Sabbath in this way, he could not 
enlighten them. He had no idea who was the stranger 
that had cured him beside the pool of Bethesda. And 
he wondered that these Jews should take no interest in 



162 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

his cure, but only in the fact that he was carrying his 
bed. 

Later in the day Jesus found the man whom he had 
healed, walking in the Temple. And he said to him : 

"Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a 
worse thing come upon thee. ' ' For Jesus knew that the 
man's long infirmity had been caused by his own sins. 

The Master was not yet so famous in Jerusalem as he 
was in Galilee, but most of the people in the crowds 
about the Temple knew him by sight. When the man 
learned the name of the stranger who had cured him by 
the pool of Bethesda, he told the Jews that it was Jesus 
of Nazareth who had said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed, 
and walk. ' ' 

Then the Jews began to persecute Jesus, and wanted 
to kill him, because he had done these things on the Sab- 
bath day. But the Master said to them : 

"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." 

This answer made the Jews angrier than ever. It was 
bad enough, they told themselves, that this young carpen- 
ter from Nazareth should come and preach in the courts 
of the Temple, drawing the attention of all men to him- 
self ; it was bad enough that he broke the Sabbath and 
taught other men to break it; but now, by his answer to 
them, he had said that God was Ms Father, thus making 
himself equal with God. Such an idea was preposterous 
to the Jews. Was not God the stern Judge of Israel? 
How then could He be the Father of this amazing young 
man from the north? 

But Jesus answered them again, and said : 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do 
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do : for 
what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son 
likewise. 



THE ANGEL OF THE POOL 163 

' ' For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all 
things that himself doeth; and he will shew him greater 
works than these, that ye may marvel. 

"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quick- 
eneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he 
will. ... 

' ' That all men should honour the Son, even as they 
honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son 
honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. . . . 

1 ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, 
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son 
of God : and they that hear shall live. . . . 

"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I 
judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine 
own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. ' ' 

Then Jesus reminded his astonished listeners that 
John the Baptist had borne witness that he was truly the 
Son of God. And he said of John : 

"He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were 
willing for a season to rejoice in his light. 

"But I have greater witness than that of John: for the 
works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same 
works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath 
sent me. . . . 

' ' Search the scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life : and they are they which testify of me. . . . 

"Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: 
for he wrote of me. ' ' 

After these sayings, the Jews could no longer fail to 
understand that Jesus claimed to be the long-promised 
Messiah. In our day, it is almost impossible to realise 
how great their excitement must have been. They did 
not believe in him, but they saw that he believed in him- 
self, and that he would make men follow him in greater 



164 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

and greater numbers. They could not doubt the works 
that he had done, for hundreds had testified of them, and 
they had seen with their own eyes this day the cripple 
who had lain so long beside the pool of Bethesda, walking 
and carrying his bed upon his back. 

No, they could not deny his works ; but they could chal- 
lenge his motives. There could be no doubt, they said, 
that he cast out devils by the aid of Beelzebub, the prince 
of devils. This was the same as saying that Jesus had 
sold himself to Satan, for the sake of worldly fame and 
power. 

But the Master said to them : 

' ' If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against him- 
self ; how then shall his kingdom stand? But if I cast 
out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God 
is come unto you. ' ' 

But the Jews of Jerusalem did not want the kingdom 
of God, and they did not want Jesus. So, as the time 
had not yet come when he felt that his Father in heaven 
commanded him to preach the new doctrine of love in the 
very stronghold of Judaism, the great Temple, he left the 
arid region of Jerusalem and went back to his own beloved 
Galilee, where the birds sang in the trees, and the brooks 
rippled over the stones, and the hearts of men were sim- 
ple and full of faith; where there was time for dreams, 
and heaven seemed near to earth ; and where he and his 
friends could live in daily communion with such celestial 
beings as the angel which was wont at certain seasons 
only to trouble the waters of the pool of Bethesda. 



CHAPTEK XVI 

JOHN THE BAPTI ST 

You remember the voice which had cried in the wilder- 
ness of Judaea, ' ' Kepent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is 
at hand. ' ' You remember the tall, gaunt man, with black 
matted hair hanging upon his shoulders, who was clothed 
in a single garment of camel's hair, girt about the waist 
with a leather strap — the man who had first declared that 
Jesus was the Messiah. You remember how John the 
Baptist had seen the Spirit of God descend in the form of 
a dove and alight upon the head of Jesus, as he came up 
out of the river after his baptism, and how the voice of 
God had said : ' ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased. ' ' 

Now after John had said to his former disciples, An- 
drew and another, "Behold the Lamb of God!" when 
Jesus had passed by, and after these disciples had left 
John and followed Jesus, the gaunt Baptist went on 
preaching as before, and saying: "Repent ye, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand. ' ' Only now he said it 
with even greater fervour, for he had seen the vision of 
the dove, and had heard the voice of God proclaiming 
Jesus, and he knew that he who should bring the king- 
dom of heaven had already begun his work among men. 

He preached so fervently against the many evil things 

he saw about him, and especially against the abuses of 

the rich and powerful, that Herod the Tetrarch caused 

him to be arrested and cast into prison. He was shut up 

165 



166 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

in a fortress, in a place where Herod also had a palace, 
so that the gorgeous halls where the Tetrarch and his 
queen Herodias lived with their dissolute friends, and the 
cold dungeon where the prophet from the desert pined in 
solitude, were practically under one roof. 

Herodias, the wife of the Tetrarch, was not a good 
woman. She was the sister-in-law of her own husband, 
whom she had married for ambition, because she wanted 
to be a queen. This whole family of Herods had long 
been disliked by the Jews. They were cruel and profli- 
gate, and many of their actions outraged the stern Hebrew 
sense of propriety. Especially were the Jews incensed by 
this marriage between the Tetrarch and his brother's wife; 
and Herod had divorced a former wife without just cause 
in order to marry his sister-in-law. 

Herodias had a young daughter, Salome, a beautiful 
but unwholesome creature about sixteen or seventeen years 
of age, who had inherited all the bad qualities of her 
mother. Salome was not the daughter of the Tetrarch, 
but of Philip, the former husband of the Queen; and, 
young as she was, the Jews distrusted her. But Salome 
could be very charming when she chose, which was always 
when she had some object to gain, either for herself or for 
her mother. For Herodias had taught the girl obedience 
— which was perhaps her only virtue. 

Of course John the Baptist knew the whole history of 
this strange family, with their unlawful intermarriages, 
for the first husband of Herodias had been her uncle ; and 
it was as much because of John's public condemnation of 
the Queen and her actions, as because of his general 
preaching against the wickedness of those in power, that 
Herod had cast him into prison. 

Often, by day and by night, when the revellers in the 
palace were silent for a moment, and the music of the 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 167 

lutes and viols ceased, or only whispered softly, the 
Tetrarch and Herodias and Salome, and the officers and 
courtiers and women in the palace, could hear the loud, 
stern voice of the prophet John, calling from his dungeon, 
' ' Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ' ' 

Now Herod himself, though he had done many evil 
actions, was at heart rather weak than wicked. There 
was somewhere deep in him a fibre which responded to 
the spirit of John ; though what might have been religion 
in a stronger man, in the Tetrarch was hardly more than 
superstition. He had at this time no intention of killing 
the Baptist; he kept John shut up in the fortress so that 
he should not cause disturbances among the people, and 
especially that he should not say true things about the 
Queen, Herodias, who had still a strong influence over 
her weak husband. 

Sometimes, when Herod was in a mood more serious 
than usual, or when the gayeties of the court had wearied 
him, he would send for John to be brought up from his 
dungeon into the palace. And on these occasions the 
Tetrarch would talk with the prophet, questioning him 
about this kingdom of heaven which he said was near at 
hand. ' ' The kingdom of heaven. ' ' The very words had 
a strange fascination for the dissolute ruler. He had some 
knowledge of the kingdoms of this world, but what could 
this other kingdom really mean? The thought of it 
troubled his sleep. He had strange dreams, in which 
heaven and earth, angelic beings and the Queen Herodias, 
and also the beautiful daughter of the Queen, Salome, 
were strangely blent. And after one of these dreams he 
always sent for the Baptist and questioned him still 
further about his prophesies. 

Was it really true, the Tetrarch wondered, that this 
gaunt man, robed in his garment of camel's hair, was 



168 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the great prophet Elias, risen from the dead? Herod knew 
that his worldly friends would laugh at him for giving so 
much thought to the words of John, and sometimes he 
laughed at himself. It was easy to make light of it all in 
the day time, when the sun shone ; but in the night, when 
he could not sleep, and tossed restlessly on his carven 
couch, the thought of that flaming-eyed prophet in the 
fortress would return to him. And sometimes, in the 
darkest hour before the dawn, he would hear the voice of 
John, crying from his dungeon: 

' ' Repent ye ! Repent ye ! " 

And the Tetrarch would turn over again on his downy 
bed, vainly trying to sleep. 

Sometimes the Queen Herodias would enter his room, 
bearing a lamp in her hand, her long black hair stream- 
ing over her shoulders, her face pale with anger. And 
she would say to him : 

"Why do you not kill that man? His ravings mad- 
den me!" 

Then she would remind Herod of the hard things 
which John had said against herself, making it seem — 
for she was wily — that her husband's lenient ways with 
the prophet were an insult to herself. 

But Herod always made excuses. What had John 
really done that was deserving of death? If he should 
kill him, he would make himself even more unpopular 
with the people. Herodias was too sensitive to criticism 
against herself. Would she not be patient for a little 
while? Perhaps something could be arranged. 

And the Queen would go away, down the corridor to 
her own room, the lamp in her hand casting the long 
shadow of her figure against the crimson walls. And she 
would mutter to herself, "How weak this Tetrarch is!'' 
Somehow she would find the way to rid herself of John. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 169 

Then she would think of her beautiful young daughter 
Salome, and wonder if the girl could not help her mother 
in this difficulty. What was the use of having children, 
she thought, if they could not be made to serve the 
interests of their parents? 

As time went on, the Tetrarch became even more in- 
dulgent to his famous prisoner, even permitting John's 
disciples to visit him in the fortress. And one day the 
Baptist, discouraged by his long imprisonment, and more 
than ever desirous that the kingdom of heaven should 
come to earth, asked his disciples what Jesus of Nazareth 
was doing, and why he delayed so long in his mission of 
transforming the world. 

The disciples told John that Jesus was still going 
about from place to place, preaching; but that, instead of 
living a life of severity and abstinence and fasting, as 
the Baptist had done so long, the Nazarene ate and drank 
like other men, and went to marriage feasts, and that 
there was joy among his disciples instead of sternness 
and sorrow. 

This news troubled John. He knew that Jesus had 
had his sojourn in the wilderness; but had he afterward 
gone back to the world of pleasures? John did not under- 
stand. He could not really doubt Jesus, on whose head 
he had seen the dove of the Spirit of God, and yet — he was 
anxious. "Eating and drinking, and going to marriage 
feasts!" To the dweller in the wilderness, who had eaten 
locusts and wild honey and slept with his head upon a 
rock, it seemed incredible. For to John, great as he 
was, had not been given the sweet and loving human 
quality which made Jesus rejoice in the innocent joy of 
others. The mission of the Baptist had been to warn the 
world, while the mission of the Nazarene was to make the 
world of men love God and one another. 



170 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

From his prison in the fortress of Herod, John sent 
two of his disciples to Jesus, to ask of him : 

"Art thou he that should come, or do we look for 
another?" 

And the messengers of the Baptist, themselves troub- 
led by the trouble of their teacher, went to Capernaum 
to seek out Jesus and to ask him the great question. 

They found the Master surrounded by those who loved 
him, among whom were many women. And the two 
disciples of John delivered their message : 

"John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art 
thou he that should come, or look we for another?" 

The query, coming from John, must have surprised 
Jesus ; but he had the loving heart which could under- 
stand all things. As the most convincing answer which 
he could send to John would be the testimony of these 
two witnesses as to his works, in that same hour he cured 
many sick persons of their infirmities and plagues, and 
cast the evil spirits out of those who were insane, and 
to many that were blind he restored the sight which they 
had lost. And the disciples of John were astonished 
when they saw the wonders which Jesus could perform. 

The Master said to them : 

' ' Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen 
and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to 
the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, who- 
soever shall not be offended in me. ' ' 

The messengers of John went back to their teacher,, 
convinced that Jesus was indeed the one they sought, and 
that there was no need for them to look for another. 

When they were gone, the Master began to speak to 
the people about John. His heart was full of a greaii 
love for the friend who had helped him in the beginning 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 171 

of his work, and he said to the multitude concerning the 
Baptist : 

"What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? 
A reed shaken with the wind? 

"But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in 
soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously ap- 
parelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts. 

"And what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, 
I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. 

' ' This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my 
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way 
before thee. 

' ' For I say unto you, Among those that are born of 
women there is not a greater prophet than John the Bap- 
tist : but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater 
than he. " 

The Bible does not tell us whether John in his dun- 
geon ever knew of the beautiful words which Jesus had 
spoken about him ; but rumour travels fast in the Orient, 
and we hope that the heart of the imprisoned man was 
comforted by the knowledge that the Master had never 
doubted Mm — even for a moment. The time was soon 
to come when John would need all the solace which the 
love of Jesus could give him. For he who is in the 
power of a weak and vacillating king, has to fear even 
the worst and the youngest of that king's associates. 

Herodias, the Queen, was plotting against the life of 
John. She was a woman of strong will and of great 
vanity, and the words of the Baptist in regard to her 
marriage with her brother-in-law Herod still rankled in 
her mind. She knew that the people believed John to be 
the prophet Elias risen from the dead; but that meant 
nothing to Herodias. Elias himself would have meant 
nothing to her, had she met him walking in the gardens 



172 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

of the palace. To Herodias the dead were dead, whether 
they were prophets or slaves, and she wished that John 
were among them. The opportunity to revenge herself 
came sooner than she had dared to hope. 

It was the birthday of Herod. The King had made a 
great supper to his lords, his high captains, and the rich 
men of Galilee. Wine flowed abundantly, and the best 
musicians of the kingdom played sweet music for the 
entertainment of the Tetrarch and his guests. Yet Herod 
was not happy. He had had unpleasant dreams the night 
before. Even the wine he had drunken could not chase 
the memory of them from his mind. He thought of that 
old King Belshazzar in the Bible, who, after a great feast 
similar to this one, had seen the supernatural handwrit- 
ing on the wall, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. " — 
"God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou 
art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. ' ' 
Though the loud talk and the laughter round the table 
made it impossible to hear what any one was saying, yet 
Herod could hear in imagination the voice of John from 
his distant dungeon, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." He began to wish that he had not 
imprisoned the Baptist. He began to wish that he were 
a better man — even that he had not married Herodias, 
thus bringing down upon himself the anathemas of the 
Jews. 

Now whenever Herodias saw that her husband was 
sad, she always wondered if he were regretting that he 
had married her. Not that she loved him so much — but 
she loved to be a queen. And this evening, when the 
guests had left the banquet-hall and were all assembled in 
the great throne-room of the palace, Herodias called her 
young daughter Salome, and said to her : 

"The King is sad. Dance for him now, that he may 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 173 

be pleased with you, and thus with me, and may perhaps 
give me the thing which I most desire. ' ' 

And Salome, who was always wonderfully dressed, 
and especially so on festive occasions such as this, came 
into the throne-room where the King sat with his friends. 
All eyes were fixed upon her, for she was very beautiful. 
Her dark hair was bound with ropes of pearls, her slender 
form was swathed in spangled draperies of soft rose- 
colour, on her little feet were jewelled shoes, and her face 
was like a newly opened flower. 

When the King learned from Herodias that Salome 
would dance for him, he was glad. Though his heart was 
so melancholy, his eyes were hungry for beauty — the 
beauty of motion, of light and colour. He had never seen 
Salome dance, for her mother only brought her to Herod 
when she had something to gain by it. The musicians 
were commanded to play. 

Gliding lightly across the marble floor, the girl began 
to dance before the King. At first she moved slowly, 
languorously, as if just awakened from sleep, her soft 
arms waving above her head, her lithe form swaying 
rhythmically to the music. She seemed to dream, and 
those who watched her were also in a dream, an enchanted 
reverie — for there was enchantment in Salome, the young 
daughter of the Queen. 

Then gradually, almost imperceptibly, the music 
changed. It was faster. The dreams vanished from the 
eyes of Salome, and from the minds of those who watched 
her. She seemed to awake, to grow alert, to become in- 
tensely interested in something which the others could 
not see, but which they felt with her — so close was the 
bond of sympathy between her and them. The men sat 
forward in their chairs, watching. Now she stamped her 
little jewelled feet upon the tessellated floor; then she 



174 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

seemed to rise in the air like a bird, her fluttering arms 
were like white wings, and the music of the lute-players 
seemed to be the voice of her own soul, as her form rose 
and fell and swayed with the melody. 

The lords and captains who watched her held their 
breath, while the King forgot his sadness in the joy of 
the dance. He no longer thought of that old king, 
Belshazzar, and the terrible handwriting on the wall ; he 
thought only of the vision of beauty before him, which 
seemed not to be of the earth, but of some mid-region 
between the world and the sky — for no one would think 
of Salome as having come from heaven. 

At last, with a wild throbbing of the lutes, the little 
dancer began to whirl round and round upon her toes; 
faster and faster she flew, until those who watched her 
were dizzy with the motion. She seemed to be a mad 
thing of fire and glinting sparks of light — her rosy dra- 
peries and her jewels being blended in one mass of moving 
colour, whose beauty made the hearts of all to thrill. 
Then, with a startled cry, she flew toward the King's 
great chair of state, and with a charming little motion 
like that of a tired and capricious child, she threw her- 
self at the feet of Herod and hid her face in her rosy 
veil. 

Herodias had watched the face of the King. She had 
seen it change from a mask of weariness to an illuminated 
human countenance; and now, when Salome threw herself 
at his feet with that pretty gesture of modest maiden- 
hood, the expression of Herod's face became tender, 
solicitous for the happiness of the girl, almost a child, 
who had danced so wonderfully to please him. He bent 
and raised her to her feet, and then he said : 

"Salome, thou hast given me great pleasure, and 
these my friends are charmed with thee. The sadness 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 175 

that was in my heart thou hast chased away, as the rising 
sun disperses the shadows of the night. ' ' 

Herodias the Queen nodded her head with satisfac- 
tion, and listened for the King's next words. They more 
than met her expectation, for he said : 

' ' Salome, ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will 
give it thee. ' ' 

The maiden stood in silence for a moment, as if con- 
sidering what surpassing gift she might demand of this 
all-powerful man, who was the husband of her mother. 

Seeing her hesitation, the King pledged himself anew, 
calling upon all his friends to witness his oath, that he 
would give her whatsoever she desired, even to the half of 
his kingdom. 

Then Salome ran to her mother, and whispered to her : 
"What shall I ask?" 

The face of Herodias was not beautiful to look upon 
at that moment, though she was noted for her beauty. 
The hardness of her heart was written on her countenance, 
as she said in a low tone to her daughter : 

"Ask for the head of John the Baptist.' 1 '' 

The King had not heard either the question or the 
answer. As he watched the pretty creature talking with 
her mother, he supposed that she was asking the advice of 
Herodias as to what jewelled bauble would best become 
her wild, dark beauty. He told himself that he would 
even give her the great jewelled breastplate of the high 
priest, should she demand it. But he was not prepared 
for what she did demand. 

Coming again before the throne of Herod, but stand- 
ing erect now instead of kneeling, Salome said, in clear 
and thrilling tones : 

"I will that you give me, on a large tray, the head of 
John the Baptist. ' ' 



176 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The face of the King became suddenly scarlet, then 
deadly pale. He shrank back in his carven chair of 
state, more startled than he would have been had the 
young creature clenched her little fist and struck him in 
the face. When the first shock of her words had passed, 
and he realised their meaning, he asked himself if she 
had suddenly gone mad. Then he remembered the brief 
whispered conversation between Salome and her mother, 
and he understood. One terrible glance he cast at his 
implacable queen, then he looked away from her. She 
had become horrible to him. 

He pleaded with Salome. What could she, a girl, 
want of this bloody gift? She was young and fair, and 
needed jewels to make her still fairer in the eyes of men. 
He would give her diamonds beyond price, and great 
rubies and emeralds. She should have, if she did not 
care for precious stones, a little palace, all her own, with 
slaves to wait upon her. She should have — yes, what 
should she not have, if she would relinquish this one 
thing? 

But Salome did not weaken in her purpose, which was 
the purpose of her mother. As she stood there before the 
King, so slender and erect, she looked like Herodias ; and 
the young lords, who a little while before had all desired 
to marry her, no longer dreamed of marriage or of love. 
They thought, instead, of blood and horror, of cruelty 
and death, and of all unmentionable things. And the 
strange young girl repeated, in a tone more thrilling than 
before : 

"I will that you give me, on a large tray, the head of 
John the Baptist. ' ' 

Poor Herod! He had called his lords and captains to 
witness his oath that he would give this dancing princess 
whatsoever she desired, and he could not break his word. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 177 

But he seemed suddenly to have become an old man, so 
white and seamed with sorrow was his face. For he had 
grown to respect — yes, almost to love the stern prisoner 
in his dungeon, until what at first had seemed a threat 
had lately come to seem a promise — ' ' The kingdom of 
heaven is at hand. ' ' 

The King sent for his executioner, for he was a king, 
with all his weakness, and he could rise to a terrible 
occasion with all the fortitude of the line of Herods 
which he represented. And he gave orders that John the 
Baptist should be beheaded, and the bleeding head given 
to this unmaidenly maiden, as she demanded, on a large 
tray. 

Then, staggering like a wounded man, the King arose 
from his chair and left the hall of state, without casting 
behind him even one glance at the face of his triumphant 
queen. 

Down in his dungeon the doomed prophet was stand- 
ing alone, praying, when the executioner appeared. Per- 
haps the sentence of death was not unwelcome to John. 
He knew now that the one whose coming he had heralded 
was indeed the Messiah, who should transform the world. 
His own mission on earth was ended, and John did not 
love the earth. He only loved God. And as he looked 
in the eyes of the executioner, and saw the torchlight 
glitter on the sharp edge of his axe, he knew that now 
indeed, for him, the kingdom of heaven was very near 
at hand. 



CHAPTER XVII 

A DAY OF MIEACLES 

When the disciples of John the Baptist came and told 
Jesus that their teacher was dead, the Master was very- 
sad. He had loved John, as well as honoured him; and 
now that the stern prophet was no longer among the liv- 
ing, the earth seemed lonelier and sadder to Jesus. The 
spiritual giants among men are few, and John had been 
one of them. 

In this hour of his grief it seemed impossible for 
Jesus to teach the multitude and to comfort them. He 
himself needed comfort. So he said to his disciples : 

' ' Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and 
rest awhile. ' ' 

The Master went with his disciples into a boat; but 
the multitude, seeing him go away, ran after him along 
the shore. From many cities and villages they had 
come, so that when Jesus would have been alone to think 
of his dead friend and to pray, he found himself sur- 
rounded by several thousand people, each of whom wanted 
something for himself, the solace of a word or a touch 
from the Master, or the healing of infirmities. The heart 
of Jesus was so sad that he was moved with sympathy for 
all these men and women who had left their homes and 
followed him on foot. If he could not himself find conso- 
lation, he could at least bestow it on others. The people 
seemed to him like sheep without a shepherd, roaming 
the pastures of the world, seeking what they knew not. 
179 



180 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

And he taught them — forgetting his own sadness, as 
one always does in trying to help others. All day he 
talked to them about God, and how they should live their 
lives with love for one another, telling them little para- 
bles or stories to illustrate the meaning of what he said. 
For Jesus understood the hearts of men, and he knew 
that no one is ever so old or so weary that he cannot for- 
get himself in listening to a story. 

But when the evening came on, the disciples of Jesus 
began to be puzzled in their minds as to how all these 
people should be fed; for they had been following the 
Master for three days, and they were now in a desert 
place far from any village. While they were considering 
the question, and trying to forget their own hunger, Jesus 
said to the disciple Philip: 

"Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?" 

Philip answered him : 

"Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient 
for them, that every one of them may take a little." 

Andrew, Peter's brother, said to the Master: 

"There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, 
and two small fishes: but what are they among so 
many?" 

The little boy came and stood before Jesus, holding 
out the basket in which were the fishes and the loaves. 
His face was eager. He had been listening to the words 
of the Master, and the stories had pleased him. But he 
wanted to sell the provisions he had brought, for he was 
very poor. 

Jesus turned to his disciples and told them to buy the 
five barley loaves and the fishes from the little boy, and 
then to make all the people, men, women, and children, sit 
down. Even John wondered what the Master was going 
to do; but he obeyed him without question, mingling 



A DAY OF MIRACLES 181 

with the crowd and telling every one to sit down upon the 
grass, which grew there in such abundance that the whole 
shore seemed to be covered with a soft green carpet. 

When they were all seated upon the ground, Jesus took 
the five barley loaves and the two fishes, and he blessed 
the food, giving thanks to God that out of His great 
abundance He had given them this plentiful repast there 
in the wilderness. Then Jesus began to break the loaves 
and to divide the fishes, handing the food to his dis- 
ciples and telling them to distribute it among the people. 
So simply and so naturally he did this, so much as a 
matter of course, that at first neither the disciples nor the 
multitude realised what a marvel was taking place before 
their eyes; for the whole five thousand, men, women, and 
children, were eating heartily, as much as they desired, 
both of the fishes and of the bread. 

When the hunger of every one was satisfied, and the 
disciples themselves had eaten, the Master said to them : 

"Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing 
be lost." 

They gathered the fragments together, and filled twelve 
baskets with what was left of the five barley loaves, after 
all the five thousand had eaten their fill — a thousand 
mouths to each loaf of bread. And the men who had 
seen this miracle which Jesus did were amazed, and they 
said one to another : 

' ' This is of a truth that prophet which should come 
into the world ! ' ' 

So excited were they that they would have taken him by 
force then and there and made him their king; for even 
yet they did not understand that the kingdom of Jesus 
was a purely spiritual one, above and beyond the king- 
doms of this world. To them power was power, and he 
who could abundantly feed five thousand men, women, 



182 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

and children from five loaves of bread and two small 
fishes, could, they reasoned, do more for them than could 
Herod, who cared principally to feed himself at their 
expense. "King of the Jews," they now called Jesus, 
who had only sought to show them the narrow path which 
led to the kingdom of heaven. 

When the Master heard the acclaiming cries of the 
people, he desired more than ever to go away into some 
quiet place where he could be alone and pray; and he 
told his disciples to get into their boat and go before him 
to the other side of the lake, while he sent the multitude 
away. 

Then Jesus went up into a mountain. At last he was 
alone with his Father. He prayed and talked with God 
until he seemed himself to be in heaven, far away from 
all the troubles of the earth. He heard the singing of the 
angels, his body seemed to melt and become one with 
the elements — as light as air, as fluid as water. Had he 
chosen, in that hour he could have ascended into heaven, 
leaving the world behind. So light his body was, that 
the wind which blew violently across the lake could have 
lifted it like a feather. In coming so close to God in 
prayer and love, all the grosser elements of his form had 
become spiritualised. He was like the angels. 

Down on the lake below his disciples laboured with the 
oars. The night was dark. The wind blew with greater 
and greater force, and in a direction contrary to where 
they wished to go. Their boat was tossed by the waves ; 
but they would not put back to the shore, because the 
Master had told them to cross to the other side and there 
await him. Kemembering the time when Jesus had 
stilled the storm on this same lake, they no longer 
thought of disobeying him. 



A DAY OF MIRACLES 183 

In the fourth watch of the night, looking across the 
dark water, they saw the form of their Master coming 
toward them, walking upon the waves. He seemed to 
be made of light, and they cried out in terror : 

"It is a spirit!" 

They huddled together in the boat, clutching one 
another's arms, and staring at that strange figure out there 
on the water, which moved toward them as if indeed it 
were a spirit and not a man. Then they heard the voice 
of Jesus, speaking to them across the waves, and he said : 

"Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." 

When they heard the familiar voice of the Master, all 
their fear left them. And Peter, remembering the miracle 
which he had seen in the afternoon, felt himself uplifted 
on the wings of a great faith. He cried to Jesus : 

' ' Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the 
water. ' ' 

"Come," said Jesus, holding out his loving arms to 
the disciple. 

Still thrilling with his great faith, Peter stepped over 
the edge of the boat and onto the surface of the lake as if 
it had been a floor, and he also began to ivalk over the 
water toward his Master. So long as his eyes were fixed 
upon the shining form of Jesus, all was well with him; 
but glancing down, he saw the boisterous waves which 
were lashed by the wind, he grew dizzy, and a sudden 
fear filled his heart. At that moment Peter began to sink 
in the water, and he cried out: 

"Lord, save me, save me!" 

Jesus was instantly at his side. Putting out a loving 
arm, he caught the trembling form of the disciple. Still 
standing upon the water and holding Peter, the Master 
said: 

"0 thou of little faith! Wherefore didst thou doubt?" 



184 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Then Jesus, with Peter, stepped over the edge of the 
boat and joined the other disciples, who had looked on at 
this still greater miracle with wide and wondering ej 

Now that Peter was safe once more upon the solid 
planks of the boat, he realised that if he had not been 
afraid — if he had not let go of the great faith which had 
exalted him for a moment, and had seemed to lift his 
bod} r on broad wings of power, he might have walked 
upon the water as far as he wished to go, even as Jesus 
had. Peter felt that he had failed; but the eyes of Jesus 
shone with thankfulness that his beloved friend had even 
dared to go a little way toward him across the tossing 
waves. For he who has the courage to attempt the seem- 
ingly impossible, may some day, with a still greater 
faith, accomplish it. 

Now that Jesus was with them in the boat, the wind 
d to blow, and without further trouble they rowed 
across to the other side of the lake. It seemed to the dis- 
ciples that Nature herself was the slave of Jesus, and 
aided him in whatever he wished to do. And they knew 
it was because their Master had conquered his own nature 
and had made it the servant of the spirit within, which 
was one with the Spirit of God. 

The next day the multitude which had been fed by 
Jesus in the desert place followed him again to the other 
side of the lake. They had seen the twelve men set out 
in their boat alone, and there had been no other boat 
there ; but as Jesus was not now upon the mountain where 
he had gone to pray, nor yet upon the shore, they had 
themselves gone over to the other side, thinking that he 
must be there. They did not know that the Master could 
walk upon the water; and when they saw him, they said: 

"Rabbi, when earnest thou hither?" 

Jesus answered them and said: 



A DAY OF MIRACLES 185 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not be- 
cause ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the 
loaves, and were filled." 

For Jesus knew that they had wanted to make him a 
king, in Herod's place, because he had fed them. And 
he said: 

"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for 
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which 
the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God 
the Father sealed. ' ' 

Then, still remembering the miracle of the loaves, 
they asked Jesus : 

' ' What shall toe do, that we might work the works of 
God?" 

Even yet they did not understand that the miracle of 
the loaves and fishes was of far less value than the mira- 
cle of love which stood in man's form before them — 
Jesus himself. And the Master answered: 

"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him 
whom he hath sent. ' ' 

Seeing that Jesus did not wish them to believe in him 
because of the miracle by which they had been fed, but 
for some other and deeper reason which they did not 
comprehend, they now asked him : 

"What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and 
believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did 
eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them 
bread from heaven to eat. ' ' 

But Jesus shook his head, saying: 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not 
that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the 
true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he 
which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the 
world. ' ' 



186 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Then they understood — some of them — that the true 
heavenly food was neither loaves nor manna, but the love 
of Jesus and of God. And they said, their eyes shining: 

' ' Lord, evermore give us this bread. ' ' 

Jesus, holding out his hands to them as if he wished 
to give himself utterly to every one of them forever, said : 

' ' I am the bread of life : he that cometh to me shall 
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never 
thirst." 

And they felt — those among them who understood — 
that they would never hunger or thirst again for anything 
except the true bread of heaven, which was the love of 
this beautiful being who stood there before them with 
his arms extended, as if he gave himself utterly to them. 
And they were very happy. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE SHINING FOEM 

A few days after the disciples had seen Jesus walking 
upon the water, he asked them : 

"Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" 

Now the disciples, when absent from their Master, 
had heard many discussions in regard to him. In that 
far time, even as now, it was hard for most men to be- 
lieve that a person whom they had themselves known 
could be altogether great — as great as those personages 
long dead whose names were recorded in history. Never- 
theless, on account of the miracles of Jesus, there were 
many who were ready to admit that he must be different 
to others. And when Jesus asked his friends what men 
said about him, they replied: 

' ' Some say that thou art John the Baptist, risen from 
the dead; some say that thou art the prophet Elias; some 
say thou art Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. ' ' 

In those days it was believed that men sometimes 
lived upon the earth more than once, coming back from 
the dead in a new body when they had some special work 
to do which had been left unfinished in their former life. 
Of course those persons who believed that Jesus was John 
the Baptist were new acquaintances, who had not known 
him during the life of John. 

Jesus now asked his disciples : 

"But whom say ye that I am?" 
187 



188 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"Thou art the Christ," answered Peter, "the Son of 
the living God. ' ' 

Jesus then told Peter that he was blessed among men; 
that flesh and blood had not revealed this truth to him, 
but the Father which was in heaven. Now the name of 
Peter means "a stone," and Jesus, who was always fond 
of playing upon the inner meaning of words, said to this 
brave disciple who had had the courage to walk toward 
him across the waters of the lake : 

' ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
church; and the gates of hell, shall not prevail against 
it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven." 

Peter did not realise at that time the full importance 
of what the Master said ; but he felt that Jesus was prom- 
ising him some great thing in the future. "The keys 
of the kingdom of heaven!" Did that mean that he 
would lead men to God? The disciple hoped so. "Upon 
this rock (Peter) I will build my church. " He knew 
that it was because he had recognised Jesus as the Son of 
God, because he had understood that the Master could 
build the church of the future upon him as a foundation. 
This idea was ever uppermost in his thoughts- — that Jesus 
was one with God; and the reason why he could love the 
Father so much was because Jesus was His son. 

Had Jesus told Peter that for hundreds of years, all 
over the world, painters then unborn would represent him 
on innumerable canvasses, holding the keys of heaven in 
his hand, it would have seemed incredible to the good 
disciple; for he sought only the kingdom of heaven, and 
did not dream of earthly glory — which always comes in 
largest measure to those who labour for something else. 



THE SHINING FORM 189 

They were all surprised at the next words of the Mas- 
ter; for he told them that they should not tell any man 
that he was the Christ. They wondered why. , And we 
also wonder, a little. Did he charge them to tell nobody, 
knowing that men meditate more profoundly upon some 
secret thing than upon something which they can tell to 
every one? Perhaps. The very idea of secrecy has a 
powerful fascination. Even children have their little inno- 
cent secrets which they whisper to one another, and if 
by chance an older person overhears them, the secret loses 
all its charm, and they forthwith choose another. It is 
because Jesus understood the child-heart which hides in 
all grown men and women, that he has made the whole 
world love him. 

The disciples were now thinking intently upon Jesus 
as the Christ, and of course they had read the prophesies 
which foretold the manner of death which the Christ — 
when he should come — must die. So Jesus began to 
show to those friends that he must go into Jerusalem, and 
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and 
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 
For had not the prophets declared that the Christ must 
suffer all these things? 

The idea was shocking to Peter. He could not imag- 
ine Jesus dying at all, especially a death of pain. The 
eyes of the disciple were like wells of fire, so excited was 
he ; and he took hold of the Master, as if he would forci- 
bly keep him from such things, saying: 

"Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto 
thee." 

But Jesus turned and rebuked Peter, telling him that 
what he said savoured not of the things of God; but of 
the things of men. For those who desire to follow the 
will of God do not shrink from pain to themselves, if 



190 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

their pain is necessary and a part of the great plan of 
God; while ordinary men, who follow only their own 
desires, would disarrange the whole universe to save 
themselves a little suffering. And Jesus said to his 
disciples : 

"If any man will come after me, let him deny him- 
self, and take up his eross, and follow me. 

' ' For whosoever will save his life shall lose it : and 
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man 
give in exchange for his soul? 

' ' For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his 
Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every 
man according to his works." 

The Master now wished his disciples to think of him 
always as the Christ who had come into the world to save 
men; and a few days afterward he revealed himself to 
three of them in a new and wonderful light. He took 
Peter and James and John with him onto a high moun- 
tain, apart from the others and from the multitude. They 
were utterly alone, Jesus and the three friends who under- 
stood him best. 

The air on the mountain was clear and pure. The 
day was very still, hardly a leaf stirred on the trees, and 
it seemed to the three disciples that they had left the 
world behind and were with the Master in some heavenly 
region, unknown to men. When they heard a little bird 
singing afar off, they wondered if it was the voice of an 
angel. It might have been, for they were in a very 
exalted state, and men sometimes hear the voices of 
angels. 

The Master went away from them a little distance and 



THE SHINING FORM 191 

stood praying, with his eyes upraised to heaven. As he 
prayed, a great change came over him; his face was 
shining like the sun, and his garments were white and 
glittering like the light when it falls upon snow. The 
disciples rubbed their eyes, thinking that something was 
the matter with their sight; but when they looked again, 
Jesus was still standing there, his face radiant as the 
sun, his garments glittering. And they now understood, 
as they had never understood before, what it really meant 
to be the Christ. 

As they watched him, holding their breath, two other 
forms appeared beside the Master, talking with him. 
There was no one to tell Peter and James and John; yet 
they knew that the two who stood with the shining Jesus 
were Moses and Elias, the great Jewish prophets who had 
been dead for thousands of years. The disciples could 
hear their voices, which seemed to come from a long dis- 
tance, though the forms were very near. They could not 
understand all that was said between the three radiant 
ones ; but they knew it was about the work which Jesus 
had yet to do in the world, and that a part of that work 
was to be his death in Jerusalem. 

The three disciples seemed to be in a dream, as if 
their bodies were locked in slumber, and it was their 
spirits which stood here on the top of this mountain and 
beheld such things as they had never thought of behold- 
ing. But, after a while they knew that they were really 
wide awake, and they still saw the forms of the two 
prophets in communion with Jesus. 

And then — Moses and Elias were no longer there, but 
Jesus only. The world was utterly still. The little bird 
no longer sang in the distance ; the very leaves upon the 
trees hung motionless, as if waiting for something yet to 
happen. 



192 STORIES FROM TEE NEW TESTAMENT 

And Peter, who was beside himself with wonder and 
hardly knew what he did, said to Jesus: 

' ' Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let 
us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one 
for Moses, and one for Elias." 

A tabernacle was the movable tent of worship which 
the Jews had carried with them in the wilderness ; it was 
considered very holy, and the building of a tabernacle 
was in itself an act of devotion. That was why it occurred 
to Peter to build tabernacles at this place, this mountain 
of transfiguration, where they had been privileged to see 
the glory of their Master and of the two great prophets. 

But even as Peter spoke, a bright cloud came down 
from heaven, covering the top of the mountain where 
they were, and the disciples were frightened as they felt 
themselves in the midst of the cloud. And then they 
heard a voice out of the cloud, which said: 

'''.This is my beloved Son: hear him." 

The three men were so terrified that they fell upon 
their faces on the ground; for though they loved C4od, 
and thought of Him as their Father because He was' the 
Father of Jesus, yet to hear Him speak thus out of a 
bright cloud in which they were themselves enveloped, 
gave them a feeling of mystery and awfulness that took 
away all their strength. 

But Jesus came and touched them, and said: 

"Arise, and be not afraid." 

At the sound of that gentle voice all fear left the 
three disciples, and they raised their faces to the Master 
who was now standing alone before them, looking as he 
always looked, save that there was still a little of the 
heavenly glory around his head and form. 

Peter no longer thought of building tabernacles ; they 
were themselves tabernacles for the love and worship of 



THE SHINING FORM 193 

Jesus; and even Moses and Elias, as they now realised, 
were beings of an order far below his. 

As they came down again from the mountain of trans- 
figuration to the level plain below, where the nine other 
disciples awaited them, Jesus said to Peter and James 
and John that they should not tell any one of the vision 
they had had, until the Son of man should be risen again 
from the dead. 

But the three disciples treasured the memory of it in 
their hearts. And often, in the silence of the night, 
when they were just on the edge of dreamland, they would 
see against the darkness of their closed eyelids that 
shining form of Jesus, as they had seen it on the moun- 
tain. And whenever the vision thus came to them, a 
great peace filled their hearts ; for they knew that their 
beloved Master, who was so pure and high and near to 
God, loved them with a perfect love, and that he had 
chosen them out of all the world of men to be near him 
and to minister to him. Is it any wonder they could not 
realise that he was going to die? 



CHAPTEE XIX 

THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS 

Jesus was always happy in the houses of his friends ; 
and in the little town of Bethany, on the hill beyond 
Jerusalem, was a home that he dearly loved to visit. 
There dwelt Martha and Mary, two sisters, who with their 
brother Lazarus believed in the kingdom of heaven. 
Whenever Jesus came to Jerusalem he sought this house, 
as a haven of peace beyond the turmoil of the city of 
cold priests and wrangling Pharisees. 

Here his disciples came also, and were welcomed. No 
matter how great was the crowd that followed Jesus, in 
the home of Martha there was always a cup of milk or a 
bit of bread at least for those who were hungry; because 
the elder sister in this household was one of those good 
women who give to the world the service of their hands. 
She was always busy, moving about the house from morn- 
ing until night, preparing food and clearing away the dis- 
order which others had made. So willing was her service, 
that her family and friends had come to take it as a mat- 
ter of course, and they were sometimes thoughtless, 
giving Martha unnecessary labour. 

Jesus had come up to Jerusalem for one of the great 
feasts and had found shelter in the house at Bethany. 
There was always a turmoil in the Holy City at the time 
of the feasts, because the crowd was very great, and often 
a score of persons would be lodged in a single room, liv- 
195 



196 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ing, as one writer says, "in that huddled state in which 
Orientals delight." But in the house at Bethany there 
was peace and quiet, even if there was not solitude; and 
when Jesus wanted solitude he sought the mountain- 
tops. 

The women who followed the Master, Mary his mother, 
Salome the mother of James and John, Joanna the wife of 
one of Herod's stewards, Mary Magdalene, and the others, 
were always glad when Jesus went to Bethany. For they 
were made welcome in the house of Martha and Mary, 
to whom all the other women who loved Jesus were as 
sisters. 

And they were never jealous, one of another; for the 
love they gave to the Master was like the love one gives to 
God, which is always sweetest when shared with many. 
It was because Jesus never seemed to think of himself, 
that his friends could love him so unselfishly. To him 
the childlike innocence of their affection was a foretaste 
of the kingdom of heaven, where all would be as the 
angels. 

As Jesus seemed to dwell alwaj^s in a sphere of purity 
above the selfish troubles of the earth, those who loved 
him tried to live also in the same sphere, where the 
things of the world did not matter, but only the things of 
the spirit — love, charity, kindness, mutual service, and 
peaceful communion. Jesus, in preaching the kingdom 
of heaven, carried it with him wherever he went. It 
seemed to his friends that they had only to listen intently 
at any time to hear the voices of the angels — whenever he 
was near them. 

There was one of the women disciples for whom this 
simple life was peculiarly sweet, and that was Mary 
Magdalene. She had been a beautiful woman full of 
errors before she found the Master. It was said that he 



THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS 197 

had cast out of her the seven devils of as many sins, and 
we can believe that she had been very unhappy; for those 
who sin much are never really happy, however gay they 
may appear to be. 

One day, in the midst of her life of false excitement, 
Mary had seen Jesus, and from that moment everything 
was changed for her. Perhaps she was already a little 
weary of her thoughtless companions, who cared for 
nothing but their own amusement. When she first 
looked into the pure and quiet eyes of Jesus, everything 
she had known became suddenly horrible to her. 

How peaceful he was! What happiness was in the 
smile which he gave to his companions, who followed his 
every movement with eyes of adoring love! Mary had 
known the richest and most powerful men in Judasa; but 
the power she recognised in Jesus was something quite 
different. It seemed' to take her. soul in a. grasp as .light 
as the touch of a roseleaf, and draw it gently, but irresist- 
ibly, away from everything she had known in the past. 
The power of Jesus was irresistible, because it was the 
power of perfect love, which is stronger than the strength 
of many armies. 

As Mary stood there gazing at the Master, he began to 
teach his friends who were assembled round him. He 
spoke of the Father in heaven, whose love yearns always 
toward His children, whether they are good or bad, 
whether they are near to Him or far away. Whenever 
Jesus spoke of his Father, there was a tone in his voice 
which thrilled the hearts of men and women, and it 
thrilled the heart of the listening Mary Magdalene. 

Any one who knew Mary would have supposed that she 
was hopelessly far away from the Father who yearned 
toward His children. But as she listened to Jesus, she 
seemed to draw nearer and nearer to God. . For the time 



198 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

she forgot herself entirely, even forgot her sins which 
were so many; she thought of nothing but the heaven of 
perfect love which Jesus revealed to her. She became 
again as a little child, listening wide-eyed to a tale of 
wonder. 

But when the Master stopped speaking, and the mur- 
mur of other and less gentle voices began all round her, 
the spell was broken for Mary. She had been for a time 
in the kingdom of heaven, with Jesus, and the shock of 
coming back to her own self was almost too terrible to 
bear. The memory of her sins rushed over her. She 
was in despair. She wanted to die. She could not 
endure herself, after being with the Father. 

Weeping, she fell at the feet of Jesus, her face hidden 
in the folds of her veil. The disciples were surprised. 
They wondered what the Master would say to her, for she 
was well known for her sins. Would he tell her that she 
was not good enough even to hope for the kingdom of 
heaven? 

But when Jesus saw the woman at his feet, and heard 
her sobs, a great pity filled his heart. He had seen her 
face a little while before, as she had listened spellbound 
to his words, and it had been like the face of an angel. 
And now — the dust of the road was not more humble than 
she. 

Bending his head and looking down at her with eyes 
full of pitying love, he said gently : 

"My sister, arise, and sin no more." 

The words were more than an invitation — they were a 
command which she could not have disobeyed. "Arise, 
and sin no more." She arose and stood before him, her 
tear-stained eyes upraised to his in the very adoration of 
gratitude. She realised that from that moment it would 
never be possible for her to sin any more. For she had 



THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS 199 

had a vision of the kingdom of heaven, and the great 
teacher, Jesus, had not even reproached her for her wicked- 
ness, but had called her "sister" ! Is it any wonder that 
the seven devils of her sins went out of her — never to re- 
turn? 

From that hour she became one of the most devoted 
of the Master's followers. And in after days, when she 
had been dead a long, long time, and the Church of Jesus 
wanted to do honour to the great names of those who had 
served him, the name of Mary Magdalene was placed high 
on the list of the saints. For one who has been very bad 
can also become very good. 

When Jesus went to Bethany, to the house of Martha, 
Mary Magdalene could always go with him; for Martha 
welcomed the other women who loved Jesus. Among the 
friends of the Master, no one was ever reproached for the 
sins of the past which had been forgiven. When they 
became his followers, they began a new life. It was like 
being born again. And Mary Magdalene, who had been 
so great a sinner, was now as kindly treated as the pure 
mother of Jesus. 

One day in the house at Bethany the women were sit- 
ting at the feet of the Master, listening to his words. 
Martha was not with them, for she was busy, as usual, 
about the house, cooking and cleaning and setting things 
to rights. Martha often did unnecessary labour, and the 
cleanest house was never quite clean enough to satisfy 
her. 

Now Martha's younger sister, who was also called 
Mary, was always at the feet of Jesus whenever he was in 
Bethany. She could never hear enough of his talk, which 
made her so happy that she forgot all about the duties of 
the household. For Mary was a dreamer, and for her 



200 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the things of the spirit were everything and the things 
of the body nothing. She would not have cared had 
there been no dinner that day. And she did not remem- 
ber that Martha was obliged [to prepare a meal, and for a 
large number of persons, as the disciples of Jesus were 
all there. 

The words of the Master were so beautiful that it is 
really no wonder Mary forgot that men had also to eat. 
The Bible does not state exactly what Jesus was telling 
them that day; but let us take any of his sayings which 
come into our minds, and imagine the group of devoted 
women, with the dreamy-eyed Mary among them, sitting 
at his feet and listening: 

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. 

' ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls. 

' ' For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ' ' 

"Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall 
agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, 
it shall be done for them of my Father which is in 
heaven. 

' ' For where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them. " 

"Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, 
they spin not ; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in 
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

"If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in 
the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much 
more will he clothe you, ye of little faith? 






THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS 201 

"And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall 
drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 

' ' For all these things do the nations of the world seek 
after : and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these 
things. 

"But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all 
these things shall be added unto you. ' ' 

Into this peaceful company came the good sister Mar- 
tha, her eyes troubled, her face a little flushed from 
hurrying. She looked at Jesus as he sat there talking, 
surrounded by the wistful-eyed women who hung upon 
his words. Martha was not thinking at that moment of 
the kingdom of heaven, but of the large number of foods 
which she expected to spread on the table before her 
guests a little later in the day. She looked at Mary her 
sister, who was so absorbed that she had not even heard 
her come into the room. And there was a complaining 
tone in Martha's voice as she said to Jesus: 

' ' Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me 
to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me." 

Jesus looked at her troubled eyes and her flushed face. 
He who had fed a multitude of five thousand men with 
five loaves of bread and two small fishes, did not feel that 
so much labour was necessary to prepare a simple meal 
for a score of persons. A little bread, a little meat or 
none at all, would have been enough for Jesus and for his 
friends. And he said to the anxious woman: 

' ' Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about 
many things : 

' ' But one thing is needful : and Mary hath chosen that 
good part, which shall not be taken away from her. ' ' 

Then Jesus went on talking to his enchanted listeners. 
And we can easily believe that the restless, troubled look 
left Martha's eyes; that she forgot for the moment how 



202 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

many mouths she had to feed that night, and stood also 
listening to the words of Jesus, while a dreamy smile stole 
over her face, as she mused on the Father who knew that 
they had need of sustenance for the body, and would send 
it in abundance to those who sought the one thing need- 
ful — the love and knowledge of Him. 






CHAPTER XX 

THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM 

As Jesus grew more and more famous, the priests and 
Pharisees and other Jews in Jerusalem were troubled more 
and more by the reports they heard concerning his teach- 
ing and his miracles. Whenever he came into the Tem- 
ple a great crowd gathered round him, and no one paid 
any attention to the priests when Jesus was near; for the 
priests never said anything new or interesting, while 
every time Jesus opened his lips he not only made the 
people think, but he thrilled their hearts, which the 
priests left cold and untouched. So the Jews in Jeru- 
salem wanted to kill Jesus. 

Though the Master knew that his life was in danger, 
he went up to the feast of Tabernacles ; but he went a 
little late, after all the others had gone to Jerusalem. 
He felt that the time was not yet come when the predic- 
tions of his death at the hands of the Jews should be ful- 
filled. He had yet other work to do before he left the 
world and returned to God who had sent him. 

When he did not come to the feast with the others, 
the Jews wondered where he could be. They wanted him 
to come, that they might kill him if possible. And 
there was much murmuring among the people at the feast 
concerning Jesus; for some said, "He is a good man," 
while others said, "Nay, but he deceiveth the people." 
The friends of the Master were even afraid to speak 
203 



204 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

openly of him, because his enemies were so powerful in 
Jerusalem. 

About the middle of the feast Jesus appeared suddenly- 
one day in the Temple. Those who loved him trembled 
with joy when they saw his face; but those who hated 
him trembled with anger. Quietly, as if the Temple were 
as safe a place for him as his own Galilee, Jesus began to 
teach the people, who gathered round him in such num- 
bers that the priests and Pharisees could hardly make a 
passage for themselves through the crowd. This gave 
them an excuse for standing and listening also, which 
they would have been too proud to do had there been 
only a few persons round the Master. 

He spoke with even more than his usual eloquence 
and charm, so that the Jews marvelled at his discourse, 
saying: "How knoweth this man so much, having never 
learned?" Because the scribes and Pharisees and priests 
could not understand how there could be any knowledge 
outside of the books which they themselves had studied 
with so much labour. 

Jesus answered them : 

"My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me" — 
meaning God. 

For Jesus never sought to exalt himself as a man; he 
desired only to teach the world about his Father and the 
kingdom of heaven which was based upon love. 

The common people of Jerusalem were surprised to see 
Jesus there; they wondered that he dared to come, because 
the Pharisees now hated him so. And they said to one 
another : 

"Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, he 
speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do 
the rulers of the synagogue know indeed that this is the 
very Christ?" 



THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM 205 

Now there was a belief among some of the Jews that 
when the Christ should appear, no one would know about 
his birth or parentage; that it would seem as if he had 
come down from heaven suddenly to the world. Of 
course this was a foolish idea; but it tends to show how 
hard it is for people to believe that any person whose 
family they know can be altogether a great man. The 
well-known fact that Jesus came from Nazareth made him 
seem quite ordinary to the Jews, and some of them now 
said: 

' ' We know this man whence he is : but when Christ 
cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." 

Jesus answered, saying that they knew both him and 
whence he came; but Him that had sent him, they knew 
not. 

The Jews were very angry at these words of the Mas- 
ter, which implied that they knew not God. And the 
Pharisees and chief priests sent officers to arrest Jesus, 
but instead the officers only stood by and listened to 
him. They listened also to the people, who said : 

' ' When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than 
these which this man hath done?" 

Jesus wanted men to believe on him because of the 
truth of what he taught; but most men believed on him 
because of his miracles ; for those who could not recognise 
the truth could recognise a miracle — like the multitude 
that had followed the Master to Capernaum because of 
the loaves and fishes with which he had fed them in the 
wilderness. Human nature changes little with the pass- 
ing of the centuries, and most persons in our own time 
would be like the old Jews, should Jesus again appear in 
the world — which he has promised to do, some day. But 
perhaps, when he comes again, he will not work miracles. 

On the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, the great 



206 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

day, Jesus again came to the Temple, and he cried to the 
assembled multitude : 

"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and 
drink." 

It was this figurative language of Jesus which charmed 
his friends and enraged his enemies. He meant that if 
any man thirsted for the love and knowledge of God, 
he should come unto him and drink of that knowledge 
and that love. For it was always the love which men 
and women felt in the Master which made him irresistible. 
They were not wise enough to judge of the truth of his 
doctrine; but they could feel that he loved them, and that 
made them happy. It was just this that he wanted them 
to feel about God. And when they heard the invitation 
to come to him and drink, some of them said : 

"Of a truth, this is the Prophet. This is the 
Christ." 

But others retorted : 

"Shall Christ come out of Galilee?" 

And there was a disagreement among the people about 
Jesus ; for some who wanted to believe on him could not 
bring themselves to do so, because he had come from a 
poor and despised quarter of the country. 

When the chief priests and the Pharisees saw the 
Master still preaching in the Temple, and when they saw 
the very officers whom they had sent to arrest him, stand- 
ing and listening to his words, they said angrily to the 
officers : 

"Why have ye not taken him?" 

The eyes of the officers were shining with their enthu- 
siasm for Jesus, who had touched their hearts with his 
love, and they said to the priests and Pharisees : 

"Never man spake like this man!" 

"Are ye also deceived?" cried the Pharisees, now 






THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM 207 

angrier than ever. ' ' Have any of the rulers of the syna- 
gogue or any of the Pharisees believed on him?" And 
they told the officers that these common people who fol- 
lowed Jesus, these common people who knew not the law, 
were cursed. 

"Now there was among the rulers of the synagogue 
one man who loved Jesus. This was Nicodemus, who 
had visited the Master by night because he feared his 
fellow Jews. Nicodemus now tried to pacify the Phari- 
sees, saying: 

"Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, 
and know what he doeth?" 

"Art thou also of Galilee?" sneered the Pharisees, 
looking scornfully at Nicodemus, as if he had disgraced 
himself by even attempting to defend this Nazarene. 
And they added: "Search the Scriptures, and look: for 
out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. ' ' 

Then, raising their chins in the air, and swinging 
their long garments in such a way as to attract as much 
attention as possible as they moved through the streets, 
the haughty and self-righteous Pharisees went to their 
own homes. 

Nicodemus also went to his house; but he walked 
slowly and haltingly, his head bent in troubled thought. 
Why was he not braver? he wondered. He knew that his 
associates would put him out of the synagogue if he 
openly proclaimed his belief in Jesus, and yet he longed 
to proclaim it. What was the value of his respected 
position in Jerusalem, if he were a slave to the opinions 
of others? That was not to be free! He envied the 
humble Nazarenes who followed Jesus from city to city, 
for they, having nothing to lose, could gain everything. 
A disciple of the Master! The very words made Nico- 
demus thrill from head to feet. 



208 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Had he known at that time just when and why he 
would finally put aside his fear and stand boldly with 
the friends of Jesus, Nicodemus would have been even 
sadder than he was. But the future was hidden from 
him. 

The following day Jesus again went into the Temple, 
and all the people came to him, and he sat down and 
taught them. As he was teaching, the scribes and Phari- 
sees, who were always plotting to entangle him in his 
talk, brought to him a certain woman who had done a 
forbidden thing, and they set her in the midst of the 
crowd before Jesus. Then, interrupting his discourse, 
they named the sin which the woman had committed, 
and said: 

"Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such 
should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" 

For they knew that Jesus was always full of pity for 
wrongdoers ; and if, by reason of his pity they could get 
him to say something against the law of Moses, they 
would have an excuse for killing him. 

John, the beloved disciple, was with Jesus at this 
time, and he tells us that the Master stooped down and 
wrote with his finger on the ground, as if he had not 
heard them. For he was indignant that these hypocriti- 
cal Pharisees, who were themselves much worse than the 
woman who stood trembling with shame and fear before 
them — indignant that these rulers in the synagogue should 
dare to make an unfortunate woman the means whereby 
they sought to entangle the Christ. John does not tell us 
what Jesus wrote on the ground, and it is possible that it 
was nothing of importance, that he merely wrote to con- 
centrate his own attention and to calm himself. 

But the Pharisees persisted in their accusation of the 
woman, and asked Jesus again what should be done with 



THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM 209 

her. At length the Master raised himself, and turning 
to them with a look which penetrated to their shifty and 
hypocritical souls, he said quietly: 

" He that is ivithout sin among you, let him first cast 
a stone at her. ' ' 

No master of irony ever uttered anything which for 
brevity and depth of meaning can be compared with that 
simple sentence, spoken so quietly by Jesus, as he sat 
there looking at the Pharisees. Then he turned away 
from them, and stooping down once more, continued to 
write with his finger on the ground. 

The Pharisees felt themselves growing red in the face. 
Their foreheads burned and their palms tingled, for their 
conscience convicted them, and they knew that they were 
far worse sinners than the woman they had wished to 
stone. They were ashamed even to look at each other. 
Casting one quick and humiliated glance at the back of 
Jesus, as he stooped there writing on the ground, they 
turned one after another and went away, beginning with 
the eldest even unto the last. 

When Jesus raised himself he saw no one but the 
woman standing before him. She stood clutching her 
breast, her head bent with shame, her eyes fixed on the 
ground. And the Master said, gently : 

"Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no 
man condemned thee?" 

"No man, Lord," she answered, in a voice so low 
that one who stood by could hardly hear it. 

"Neither do I condemn thee," said Jesus. "Go, and 
sin no more." 

The woman went away. 

And the Pharisees, when they had had time to recover 
themselves a little from the shame of the Master's reproof, 
vowed each secretly (for this was a time when they did 



210 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

not counsel together) that Jesus should not live much 
longer upon the earth. 

Twice after that they took up stones to throw at him, 
but each time he passed quietly away from them, going 
about his business of healing the sick, and restoring 
sight to the blind, and preaching the love of all creatures. 
And more and more the people followed him. 



CHAPTEE XXI 

THE RAISING OP LAZARUS 

You remember the two sisters, Martha the industrious 
housekeeper and Mary the dreamer, who lived in the lit- 
tle town of Bethany, not far from Jerusalem. You remem- 
ber how Jesus had gently reproved Martha, when she 
complained to him because Mary listened so much to his 
beautiful talk about God that she forgot to do her share 
of the housework. 

Now Mary and Martha had a brother named Lazarus, 
whom Jesus loved very much. Lazarus was a man of 
some importance in the little town of Bethany, and he 
had many friends in Jerusalem. He was of a gentle and 
dreamy spirit, like his sister Mary; and he also loved to 
listen to Jesus when he talked about God and about the 
kingdom of heaven, where they would be like the angels, 
caring only for the love of God and the love of one another. 

When Jesus was far away from Bethany, travelling 
about the country with his disciples, the brother and sis- 
ter, Lazarus and Mary, used to talk about him all day 
long; and sometimes, for many days together, Lazarus 
was so exalted with his thoughts of the kingdom of 
heaven that he did not care to eat the food prepared for 
him by his other sister, the faithful Martha. For Jesus had 
said that in heaven they would be like the angels, and 
Lazarus was sure that angels did not eat or drink. 

Martha, as you will remember, was always troubled 
about many things, and she was especially troubled when 
211 



212 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

her brother would not eat. She also desired to enter the 
kingdom of heaven, with the other friends of Jesus; but 
she could not see why men should want to stop eating 
and drinking while they were still on earth. She was 
always telling Lazarus that he would make himself sick 
with his fasting and his sitting-up of nights to pray 
alone or with his sister Mary. 

And at last Lazarus did really become sick, so sick 
that he could not leave his bed, and did not even feel 
well enough to pray with the gentle Mary when she came 
and sat beside him, holding his hand and trying to cheer 
him with talk about Jesus. He wanted only to lie still, 
with his large, hollow eyes fixed on the patch of blue sky 
which could be seen through the little window at the foot 
of his bed. 

Martha was now thoroughly alarmed about her brother, 
and human nature being much the same in those far days 
as now, she could not refrain from saying all the time, "I 
told you so! I told you so!" 

Each time she turned away from the bed of Lazarus, 
with the nice hot broth which he could not drink; each 
time she looked at him lying there so still, gazing at the 
little patch of blue sky through the window, Martha's 
face grew more and more troubled, and little lines of 
anxiety would come between her straight black eyebrows. 

Mary was troubled also, and she was grieved at Mar- 
tha, who made her feel that she was as much to blame as 
Lazarus for the sickness which had come upon him. If 
Mary had not encouraged Lazarus in too much dreaming 
and too much praying, Martha said, he would not have 
refused for weeks to eat his proper food, and he would 
not now be lying sick unto death. And Mary's eyes were 
full of tears, not only with anxiety for her brother, but 
with grief at her sister's reproaches. 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 213 

' l Oh, if Jesus would only come ! ' ' she said to herself 
all day long. At last, toward the evening of the second 
day, she said it aloud to Martha, "Oh, if Jesus would 
only come!" And Martha said, "Yes, we need him." 

Then the two sisters asked a neighbour of theirs to go 
and find Jesus, whom they knew to be preaching with his 
disciples in Pereea, and to give Jesus this message: 
' ' Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. ' ' 

Now when the messenger, the neighbour of Mary and 
Martha, found Jesus and gave him the message of the 
sisters, Jesus did not seem to be distressed; though, as 
every one knew, he deeply loved Lazarus and Mary and 
Martha. And his disciples wondered that he should not 
be troubled. 

Jesus, seeing the questions in their eyes, told them 
that the sickness of Lazarus was not unto death, but for 
the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified 
thereby. The disciples did not understand his words. 
They could not see how the sickness of any man, least of 
all that of a faithful creature like Lazarus of Bethany, 
could bring glory unto God or to the Son of God. 

Jesus stayed two days longer in the place where he 
was then preaching, and he healed there many sick per- 
sons. His disciples, while they wondered that he did not 
want to go to Bethany to cure Lazarus, were really glad 
that he did not; for they remembered how the Jews in 
Judsea had wanted to stone the Master the last time he 
had been in their country, and Bethany, the home of 
Lazarus, was in Judaea. 

But at the end of the two days, Jesus said to his dis- 
ciples : 

' ' Let us go into Judsea again. ' ' 

"Master," they answered, "the Jews of late sought to 
stone thee; and goest thou thither again?" 



214 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Jesus replied: "Are there not twelve hours in the day? 
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because 
he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in 
the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in 
him." 

John, the beloved disciple, was the only one who 
understood this saying and remembered it. But none of 
them understood the next thing which Jesus said : 

' ' Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go, that I may 
awake him out of sleep. ' ' 

The disciples answered, "Lord, if he sleep, he shall 
do well," meaning that if he slept he would recover. 

Then Jesus, seeing that they did not understand him, 
told them plainly : ' ' Lazarus is dead. ' ' 

The disciples were no longer astonished when the 
Master told them of something which was happening or 
had happened far away ; for they had now come to believe 
that he knew all things. And when Jesus said that Laza- 
rus was dead, they knew that it must be so. One of the 
disciples said that he was sorry that the Master had not 
been there to save Lazarus from death, as he had saved so 
many others ; but Jesus answered : 

"I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the 
intent ye may believe; nevertheless, let us go unto him." 

And still they did not understand all that Jesus 
meant. But Thomas, the disciple whom they called 
' ' doubting Thomas, ' ' because he did not believe things so 
readily as the others, said to his fellow disciples : 

"Let us also go, that we may die with him. " 

For these men who followed Jesus were much troubled 
by the enmity which some of the Jews in Judaea had 
shown to their Master; and Thomas especially, who 
always looked on the dark side, believed that Jesus would 
be killed if he went to Bethany where the dead Lazarus 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 215 

was, and that all his disciples would be killed with 
him. If Thomas had lived in our day he would have 
been called a pessimist; for a pessimist is a man who, 
when he looks at a rosebush in the sunshine, sees only 
the shadow cast by the rosebush, and not the sun which 
causes the shadow, nor the blossoms on the bush. 

As they journeyed southward into Judaea, the dis- 
ciples noticed that Jesus was more sad than usual; and 
they questioned among themselves whether he was de- 
pressed because of the death of Lazarus, or because he 
was afraid the Jews would kill him. But it was really 
neither of these things. He was meditating the most 
important miracle which he had ever performed, for he 
meant to bring Lazarus to life again. 

When they were still some distance from Bethany, 
they learned from a man whom they met on the road that 
Lazarus was not only dead, as Jesus had declared, but 
that he had been lying in the grave four days. Jesus 
knew that Mary and Martha were broken-hearted at their 
brother's death, and that they could not understand why 
he had not come to them when they had sent him word 
that Lazarus was sick. 

At the home of Mary and Martha was a company of 
their friends, from Jerusalem and elsewhere, who were 
trying to comfort the grieving sisters ; and some of these 
friends declared that Jesus should have come before, if 
he intended to come at all. But the gentle Mary, though 
her eyes were full of tears, reproved them for criticising 
anything which Jesus did or did not do ; for, as she told 
them, even his neglect was more loving than the kindness 
of every one else in the world. 

Martha, when she learned that Jesus was coming, 
went out to meet him; but Mary sat still in the house, 
for she would not hasten, by even a few moments, the 



216 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

time that Jesus himself had chosen to comfort her. Yet 
as the minutes passed by her heart beat fast, for she 
wanted to see Jesus more than she wanted anything else 
in the world just then. Was there deep in her soul a 
secret hope that Jesus might do for the dead Lazarus 
what he had done for the little daughter of Jairus? I do 
not know ; but Mary had great faith, and to her loving 
heart the will of Jesus was like the will of God. Had 
she heard him promise to create a man out of a handful 
of dust, as Adam is said to have been created by God in 
the beginning of the world, she would have watched to see 
the dust take form and breath and colour. 

When Martha, who had gone out to meet Jesus, saw 
him in the distance surrounded, as usual, by many peo- 
ple, the tears of gladness sprang to her eyes. She could 
not pray so much as Mary, nor in such lovely words ; for 
her prayers took the form of useful actions for others, 
which may be, after all, the kind of prayer that God likes 
best. But Martha loved Jesus with her whole heart; and 
though she could not imagine so well as Mary could what 
she would be willing to do for love of him, when the time 
for action came she could do just as much. And when 
she met Jesus coming toward Bethany, she went up to 
him and said, in her quiet, determined way : 

' ' Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not 
died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt 
ask of God, God will give it thee. ' ' 

"Thy brother shall rise again," said Jesus, with a 
loving smile. 

' ' I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day," replied Martha. Her eyes were anxious 
and full of questions; for she, too, like Mary, remem- 
bered hearing about the daughter of Jairus, who had been 
dead, yet lived. 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 217 

Jesus, as if following her thought, said gently: 

"I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and who- 
soever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Be- 
lievest thou this?" 

"Yes, Lord," said Martha; "I believe that thou art 
the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the 
world. ' ' 

Seeing that there were many other persons pressing 
around Jesus and wishing speech with him, Martha 
turned away and walked back toward her own house. 
Personal grief is very important to the one who grieves, 
and it might naturally seem to Martha that Jesus should 
put aside all these other persons and come straight to her 
house to comfort her; yet she had learned from him, in 
other days, to consider the desires of others as well as her 
own desires. In the crowd that pressed around Jesus 
there on the outskirts of the town, demanding speech 
with him, there might, thought Martha, be somebody 
whose need was greater than her own. 

On the way back to her house she thought of what 
Jesus had said to her: "I am the resurrection and the 
life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet 
shall he live." Surely, she reasoned, in saying those 
words to her just then, he had meant that she should 
understand them in more than the figurative sense. He 
had meant more than that resurrection at the last day, 
in the kingdom of heaven, which Lazarus had dreamed 
about so much. Her heart was full of hope. 

When she reached her house she found Mary, her sis- 
ter, sitting with the friends who had come to comfort 
them concerning the death of their brother. She went 
and whispered to Mary secretly : 

"The Master is come, and calleth for thee." 



218 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

As soon as Mary heard this she ran out of the house, 
and the two sisters hurried back together to the place 
where Jesus was. Mary was so happy because Jesus had 
asked for her. Perhaps he had even thought of her a 
few times during the weeks when he had been preaching 
in the villages of the north. That Jesus should think of 
her sometimes, when he was away, meant more to Mary 
than it would have meant to her to be seated upon the 
throne of Herod, the King. For great love is always 
humble, and thankful for little things. 

Now the Master was not yet come into the town, but 
was still in that place where Martha had met him. When 
Mary first caught sight of him in the distance, her eyes 
filled with tears. Her grief for Lazarus burst forth 
afresh, now that Jesus was here to share it with her and 
to comfort her. 

The Jews, their friends and neighbours, who had been 
with Mary in the house and had tried to console her, 
when they saw her rise up hastily and go out, supposed 
that she had gone to the grave of Lazarus, to weep for 
him. And they also rose up and followed her and Mar- 
tha along the road. 

When Mary came to the place where Jesus was, she 
fell down at his feet, weeping, and she said to him the 
very words which Martha had said to him before : 

"Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not 
died." 

When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews who had 
followed her weeping also, he groaned in the spirit and 
was troubled. For a moment he could have wished that 
he had come down here sooner, when they first sent for 
him, and had saved them all this grief. For though he 
knew that what he meant to do would be better in the 
end, and would bring more glory to the name of God ; 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 219 

yet the heart of Jesus was so tender that the sight of 
others' suffering was almost unendurable to him always. 
That is one of the reasons why the world has loved him 
so much for nearly two thousand years. 

Jesus asked the sisters where they had laid Lazarus, 
and they answered : 

' ' Lord, come and see. ' ' 

Jesus wept. 

And the Jews who had followed Mary and Martha, 
when they saw the tears of Jesus, said: "Behold, how 
much he loved him ! ' ' 

But some of the Jews said among themselves, as they 
walked behind Jesus and the two sisters to the tomb of 
Lazarus : 

' ' Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the 
blind, have caused that even this man should not have 
died?" 

Jesus, who always knew what was passing in the 
minds of others, must have felt that they were blaming 
him for having left his friend to die alone, instead of 
coming to save him. And the tears which Jesus shed 
were not only for the sufferings of Mary and Martha and 
Lazarus himself, but also for the unbelieving people who 
could not understand the power of God unless they saw 
some miracle performed before their eyes. 

Still groaning in spirit and weeping for the grief of 
all mankind, and for mankind's lack of faith, Jesus 
came to the grave of Lazarus. It was a cave in the rock, 
like so many of the tombs of Judsea, and a large stone 
was laid upon it, closing the mouth of the cave. 

As Jesus stood looking at that stone, which shut the 
body of his dead friend away from the daylight, all the 
Jews stood round, weeping and groaning. The sound of 
their lamentations was terrible to Jesus. 



220 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"Take ye away the stone," he said. 

Martha reminded Jesus that her brother was four days 
dead, and that by this time his body had begun to decom- 
pose. But Jesus answered her : 

' ' Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst believe, 
thou shouldst see the glory of God?" 

Mary and Martha clung close together, for now they 
really understood that Jesus would do some wonderful 
work. Before this they had hoped it, but they had not 
been sure. They questioned each other with their eyes ; 
and the Jews, their friends and neighbours, stopped 
weeping and lamenting, as if they also understood that 
some great thing was about to take place. 

Then the Jews, obeying the command of Jesus, took 
away the stone which hid the mouth of the tomb. Their 
faces were very serious, and each man and woman looked 
intently at the Master, who stood there before the mouth 
of the tomb, in the attitude of prayer. They saw Jesus 
lift up his eyes to heaven, and they heard him say: 

' ' Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And 
I knew that thou hearest me always : but because of the 
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe 
that thou hast sent me. ' ' 

They who stood by saw that the face of Jesus was 
shining with a bright light, as if the spirit within had 
made his features transparent. And they held their 
breath, trembling, feeling the power which went out from 
him. Suddenly they heard Jesus cry with a loud voice : 

' ' Lazarus, come forth ! ' ' 

The hands of the sisters Mary and Martha were clasped 
so tightly that the nails cut into the tender flesh ; but 
they did not feel pain, so excited were they. They hardly 
breathed. Their ears, made keen with expectation, caught 
a faint rustling, like that of shaken linen, from the 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 221 

inside of the tomb ; and then they heard another sound, 
like a sandalled foot moving over a stone floor. Then 
— and they wondered afterward why they had not fainted 
at the sound — they heard a low and muffled cough which 
came from the inside of the grave. 

A moment later — was that really their brother, stand- 
ing there in the mouth of the tomb, bound hand and foot 
with graveclothes, and with a linen napkin round his 
chin? His eyes were wide and staring, his face deadly 
pale, and his arms underneath the binding graveclothes 
moved slightly, as if he struggled to be free. 

"Loose him, and let him go," said Jesus; and the 
Jews rushed forward to unwind the cloths. Their hands 
trembled so that they could hardly do the work, and 
Lazarus himself was obliged with one free hand to help 
unloose the other. 

When at last he stood quite free, he looked around 
him in bewilderment. He had seen already the face of 
Jesus, so white and calm and full of power; and now he 
saw the faces of his sisters, still red and swollen from 
weeping. Mary and Martha were so frightened that they 
did not dare to go to their brother, until Jesus should bid 
them. 

Lazarus, turning his head, surveyed the open door of 
the tomb where he had lain for four days. Then he 
understood and moaned a little, for the warm blood 
coursing once more through his stiffened veins caused 
him a sharp, stinging pain in every part of his body. 
And the labour of breathing was like the lifting of a 
great weight with every heaving motion of his stiffened 
chest. 

But Jesus, with a pitying smile, laid his hands upon 
him, and suddenly the pain all went away. Lazarus 
breathed freely again, as those breathe who have never 



222 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

been dead, and the blood in his veins thrilled him with 
pleasure instead of pain. Those who watched him, hold- 
ing their breath, saw a wan smile flutter across his face, 
into which the warm blood had come again, restoring to 
it the colour and freshness of life. 

Only his eyes were different to what they had been 
before; for one who has been dead knows many things 
which he would not care to tell to those who have never 
felt the chilling embrace of the tomb. What was it 
Lazarus had seen on the other side of the door of death? 
We do not know; we shall never know, till we pass 
through that door ourselves, some day. 

As he walked slowly home to the little house in 
Bethany with Jesus and his sisters, Lazarus did not 
speak many words, and Mary and Martha could not 
speak, either. There are some things which words, with 
all their subtle meanings, can never hope to express. But 
the eyes of Mary and Martha turned constantly to the 
calm face of Jesus, who walked so quietly beside them. 
The disciples of Jesus had, at his request, made all the 
friends and neighbours — the Jews who had been with 
them at the tomb and who had seen the raising of Laza- 
rus — keep back from this reunited family and the great 
teacher who had reunited them. The four walked quite 
alone along the road ; and the people who lived beside the 
way, looking from the doorways of their houses at the 
slowly moving group, could not believe their eyes; they 
thought that the man in white garments, who was with 
Jesus and the two women, must be some stranger in the 
town, who looked and walked like the dead man Lazarus. 

Behind them, at the still open door of the tomb, the 
Jews were talking and gesticulating together, and ques- 
tioning the disciples who remained with them. Had 
Lazarus really been dead? If not, how could he have 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 223 

lain four days in the airless rock-chamber of the tomb, 
and ever breathed again? Who was this man, this Jesus 
of Nazareth, who could perform such wonders? Was he 
really, as his disciples claimed, the one and only Messiah 
of the Jews, whom the ages had waited for? The Messiah, 
when he should come, would surely do such things as this 
man did. Yes, he must really be the Christ. So the 
Jews talked and questioned together, not only there 
beside the open and musty-smelling entrance to the tomb, 
but later when they went down into Jerusalem. And 
there was great excitement in Jerusalem and in Bethany, 
and in all the other towns round about, as the news 
quickly spread from mouth to mouth, and from home to 
home. And now many in Jerusalem believed in Jesus, 
that he was the Son of God, where only a few had be- 
lieved before. 

And some of those who had witnessed the miracle 
went to the Pharisees in Jerusalem, telling them that 
Jesus had brought a dead man to life at Bethany, and 
that more people than ever were following him and be- 
lieving on him. 

Now these Pharisees were very self-righteous, and 
very proud of their knowledge of the old Jewish law. 
Jesus himself called them hypocrites; and as Jesus was 
inclined to give all men the benefit of every doubt, we 
may believe that the Pharisees were really hypocritical. 
They had so long been accustomed to having men come to 
them to ask what was right and what was wrong, that 
they were jealous at the growing crowds that followed 
Jesus, the crowds of men who now asked Jesus what was 
right and wrong instead of asking the Pharisees. 

It was the same jealous spirit which had led Cain, the 
son of Adam, to slay his brother Abel, as you have read 
in the Old Testament. It was the same jealousy which 



224 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

had made King Herod want to destroy the infant Jesus, 
because the Magi had called him ' ' King of the Jews, ' ' 
after his birth had been revealed to them by the Star in 
the East. The spirit of jealousy is the most evil spirit 
in the world ; it even makes little children hate each other 
sometimes, because one of them has something which the 
other wants. Those who wish to be like Jesus should 
destroy this spirit in their hearts ; and whenever they feel 
jealous of any person, they should remember that in the 
heart of that person is a little place where God delights 
to dwell. For when we realise that God dwells in another, 
and looks out at us through his eyes, we cannot possibly 
hate him or be jealous of him. 

But the hypocritical Pharisees did not really love 
God; they only liked to talk about Him, because it made 
them seem important in the eyes of others. So, every 
time they heard that Jesus had done something which 
they could not do; every time they heard a man praise 
Jesus and declare that he was the Son of God, the jealous 
hatred which they had for him grew stronger and stronger, 
until they wished that he might be killed. 

They pretended to think that Jesus was of no impor- 
tance. They pretended to think this because they wanted 
to think it; but in their hearts they knew it was not so, 
and that only made them hate him all the more. They 
even tried to forget that he existed; but in the night-time, 
when all the world was still, and the old Pharisees lay 
upon their backs in bed, the thought of Jesus came to 
trouble them. They simply could not put him out of 
their minds. In the daytime it was not so hard for 
them, because they had many things to do. They could 
walk up and down the streets, making parade of their 
piety, and they could argue, argue, argue, with any one 
who had the time for argument, upon the everlasting ques- 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 225 

tions of the subtle differences between tweedledum and 
tweedledee. 

We are told by a great French scholar, whose books 
you will read perhaps when you are older, that the man- 
ners of the Pharisees were often ridiculous and excited the 
smiles of even those who believed in them. They had 
many nicknames among the people, because of their pecul- 
iar ways. They were called "bandy-legged Pharisees," 
because they dragged their feet in walking, in the attempt 
to appear very stately and dignified. They were called 
"bloody-browed Pharisees," because they walked with 
their eyes shut so as not to look at the pretty women, 
and thus knocked their heads so often against the walls 
that their foreheads were always bloody. Yes, in the day- 
time they could keep from worrying about Jesus, even 
when they were talking against him. 

But in the quiet night it was different. They would 
lie in bed upon their old backs, as I have told you, and 
in the vexation of their thinking about Jesus, they would 
pluck the hairs from their long beards and cast them 
from them, as if by so doing they cast away the thoughts 
of Jesus which burned and burned in their minds until 
their heads ached with the pressure of their thinking. 

But when they learned that Jesus had raised Lazarus 
from the dead; when they heard, whichever way they 
turned, the constant talk about this miracle which had 
been performed almost at their very doors, they could not 
endure any longer their jealousy and their anger. And 
they sought out the chief priests, who were attached to 
the great Temple, and the Pharisees held a council with 
the chief priests as to what could be done in order to rid 
themselves of Jesus. 

"What shall we do?" they asked each other, with 
anxious eyes, "for this man works many miracles. If 



226 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him : and 
the Romans shall come and take away both our place and 
nation. ' ' 

For always, among the Jews of that time, there was 
the fear and hatred of the Romans who ruled over them. 
And the priests and Pharisees now feared that if the peo- 
ple more and more came to believe on Jesus, the Romans 
would try to do away with the old Jewish religion alto- 
gether. If such a change took place, the priests would 
lose all their authority, and the Pharisees would find no 
one to listen to them when they argued, argued, argued 
about the letter of the law. 

Now the Jews of that time changed their high priest 
every year or two, for political reasons, and the high 
priest for that year was named Caiaphas. He was the 
son-in-law of a former high priest, Annas; he was a Sad- 
ducee of the most unbelieving type ; and though Caiaphas 
had a very good opinion of himself, he would have been 
surprised had any one told him that his fame would last 
forever. He would have been still more surprised could 
he have known the reason why people would talk about 
him in the centuries to come. For though these priests 
and Pharisees hated Jesus, and gave so much thought to 
him, they did not realise how very important he was. 
They did not realise that for thousands of years the world 
would be interested in every smallest action of his life; 
and that their own names would be hated for all these 
ages, just because they were the enemies of Jesus. 

When the priests and Pharisees had talked together a 
long time, about the raising of Lazarus and all the excite- 
ment it had produced, they agreed among themselves that 
the love which Jesus inspired in the people was a menace 
to their own place and authority. Then Caiaphas the 
high priest arose in his seat, and looking round upon the 



THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 227 

circle of sharp and discontented faces before him, he 
spoke these momentous words : 

' ' Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expe- 
dient for us, that one man should die for the people, and 
that the whole nation perish not. ' ' 

Then, gathering his robe about him, Caiaphas stalked 
out of the room, leaving his fellow-counsellors to think 
about his words. The priests and Pharisees who were left 
sitting there looked at each other questioningly, for every 
man knew what Caiaphas meant: that they must kill 
Jesus in order to save themselves. 

Now the time of the Jewish Passover was near, and 
the priests asked one another : 

"What think ye, that he will not come to the feast?" 

And they nodded their heads, that he would probably 
come; and their sharp eyes grew sharper, and they pulled 
viciously at their long beards as they walked to and fro, 
meditating how they could kill Jesus. And they gave 
orders to their servants that if any man knew where Jesus 
was, he should tell the high priests, that they might take 
him. 

Jesus, who always knew what was passing in the 
minds of others, knew now that the priests and Pharisees 
were plotting to kill him ; and he went away from Bethany 
with his disciples, leaving Lazarus and Mary and Martha 
behind. He went into a place called Ephraim, near to 
the wilderness of Judaea where John the Baptist had so 
often walked crying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." And Jesus stayed there with his 
disciples, healing those who were sick, and telling people 
about the love of God. 

But his disciples noticed now that his eyes were often 
very sad, and that he did not like to hear them talk about 



228 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Lazarus, and of how he had been raised from the tomb. 
For Jesus knew that the bringing of his dead friend to 
life, while it had brought much glory to the name of 
God and to the Son of God, would cause him serious 
trouble in the end. 



CHAPTER XXII 

JESUS AND THE LITTLE CHILDREN 

Of all the beautiful stories which the Gospels tell us 
about Jesus, there is none lovelier than the one which tells 
how he blessed the little children in Judaea, not long be- 
fore his death. Jesus loved all the little children in the 
world. He liked to look in their pure faces, fresh and 
rosy as the petals of a flower. It seemed to him that from 
their little eyes God looked upon the world and looked at 
him, and their voices were sweet music in his ears. He 
never found them tiresome, with their prattle and their 
questions ; for how can a child learn things except by ask- 
ing those who are older than he is? 

In one of the villages near to the wilderness, where he 
had been teaching the people, and healing many who were 
afflicted with disease or grief, among those whom he had 
cured were several men and women who had little children. 
And these fathers and mothers said to themselves and to 
one another: 

"As the Master has such power, and as he comes from 
God, and as he only passes through our city, and we may 
never see his face again, let us ask him to lay his hands 
upon our children and to bless them, that they may live 
and thrive, and grow to be good men and women. ' ' 

And the fathers and mothers also said : 

"How beautiful is the face of Jesus when he prays! 
If, when his face is thus illuminated, and the Holy Spirit, 
hovering invisible in the air above his head, listens for 



230 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

his words — if at such a time he should lay his hands upon 
our children, surely the Holy Spirit would descend on 
them. They might see visions, too, which they would 
remember all their lives. ' ' 

So the fathers and mothers, having bathed their chil- 
dren and combed their waving hair, put on them their 
best linen garments. They told the little ones that they 
must be very good and quiet, and that perhaps the won- 
derful man Jesus, whom they had seen at a distance in the 
marketplace, would touch them with his hands. And the 
children were so much excited at the very thought of be- 
ing touched by the wonderful man with the shining face, 
that they trembled all over, and their little voices shook 
as they promised to be good. The fathers and mothers 
gave each little child a flower which it might lay at the 
feet of the wonderful man, but must not put into his 
hands, which should be left free to bless them; then they 
led the children out into the sunshine and toward the 
square of the city, where Jesus sat with his disciples un- 
der a spreading tree. 

Those who love deeply and purely are not afraid of 
seeming bold, because their desires are unselfish. And 
the parents of the children, in leading their little ones to 
Jesus, did not even ask themselves if they were taking 
liberties with a great man. With their children they 
went right up to him, where he sat under the big tree, 
and they said: 

' ' Master, will you not lay your hands upon our chil- 
dren, that God may bless them for your sake?" 

But the disciples of Jesus, good men though they were, 
and men who loved Jesus deeply, were sometimes a little 
too conscious of their position as the most intimate friends 
of the Master. They sometimes felt that it was for them 
to protect Jesus from the too near approach of those who 



JESUS AND THE LITTLE CHILDREN 231 

needed him, not realising that they themselves were only- 
great because of their love for Jesus and because of his 
love for them. And now, when the disciples saw the 
fathers and mothers, with the group of little children 
crowding round the Master, they rushed forward and would 
have thrust them back from Jesus, sitting there so beauti- 
ful and benign under the tree. 

But Jesus arose from his seat, and reproved his dis- 
ciples. We do not know all that he said to them, because 
the disciples who told the story only admitted that the 
Master reproved them; but, knowing him as we do, and 
knowing his love for the whole world, we may be sure that 
he reminded them that the Son of God was sent to all 
men, and to all women, and especially to all little chil- 
dren. And then he said : 

' ' Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I 
say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom 
of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 

"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; 
for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always 
behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. ' ' 

And Jesus sat down again under the tree, and called 
the little children to him. They were not afraid of him 
because he was so great; but when he smiled at them, they 
climbed into his lap, they hung about his neck, they 
clung to his knees, they laid their little heads against his 
sleeve, rubbing it softly with their cheeks. Some of them 
prattled to him, asking him childish questions, though 
their parents had told them that they must be quiet. 
And he answered all the questions, as if the little children 
had been great philosophers, and as if the questions which 
they asked had been of value to the nations. 

Then, when they had grown quiet with content, Jesus 



232 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

laid his hands upon the head of each little child, one after 
another, and raising his eyes to heaven, he asked his 
Father — who lived in heaven, and who also lived in the 
heart of every one in the world who would let Him live 
there — to bless the little children. 

And the parents, standing a little way apart and look- 
ing on at the lovely scene, felt something surging in their 
own hearts which they had never felt before, as if the God 
who wanted to dwell within them were mutely calling at- 
tention to His presence. And their eyes filled with happy 
tears, so that the Master sitting there under the tree with 
the children in his arms seemed to be seen through a veil. 
But they who see Christ through the veil of their own 
loving tears, see him more plainly than when their eyes 
are clear. 

When Jesus had blessed the children, and his eyes and 
his thoughts came back from heaven to regard the world 
around him, he gently placed upon their feet the little 
ones who nestled in his lap ; then he himself arose and led 
them to their parents. With a smile of parting for all, 
he beckoned to his disciples, and passed out from among 
the people into a little house near by, where one lay sick 
whom he desired to heal. 

And the fathers and mothers of the children walked 
slowly home with their little ones. Their hearts were so 
full of love, that they could not talk together, and the 
families separated in silence, each going to their own 
house. 

The children never forgot the happenings of that day. 
Even the smallest of them, a little daughter, who could 
hardly lisp the name of Mother, remembered vividly her 
whole life long the beautiful man with the loving smile 
who had laid his hands upon her little head, and in whose 
strong arms she had nestled as a baby. And when she 



JESUS AND THE LITTLE CHILDREN 233 

had grown to be a woman, she told her own children all 
about it; and when her children were grown to be men and 
women themselves, and had other little children of their 
own, she told her grandchildren how Jesus of Nazareth, 
the great Messiah of the Jews, had blessed her fifty years 
before. And whenever her grandchildren were naughty, 
as all little ones sometimes are, she had only to whisper 
the words of Jesus to make them good again : 

1 ' Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not : for of such is the kingdom of God. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXIII 

JESUS AND THE RICH YOUNG MAN 

As even children may observe, if they look closely at 
their life and at the life about them, when anything hap- 
pens which makes them very happy, it is generally fol- 
lowed by something which makes them unhappy; and a 
day of calmness and simplicity is likely to be followed by 
a day when things are puzzling. This seems to be a law 
of life, which no one can escape ; and it was often illus- 
trated in the history of Jesus. 

After those lovely moments with the simple little chil- 
dren whose parents had brought them for his blessing, the 
next person who came to Jesus was a rich young man 
whose life was anything but simple. 

When the Master and his disciples had gone out of the 
village in which he had blessed the children, and as they 
were walking slowly along the country lane which was bor- 
dered with the green leaves and the blossoms of early 
spring, a young man in a rich red dress came running 
after Jesus, and knelt at his feet in the dusty road. As 
the Master bent his head and looked at the eager-faced 
young man, kneeling there in the dust before him, the 
young man said: 

"Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may 
have eternal life?" 

And Jesus answered him : 

"Why callest thou me good? There is none good but 
235 



236 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

one, and that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, 
keep the commandments." 

"Which?" asked the rich young man; for he had been 
brought up among the Pharisees, and he knew well the 
ten commandments of the Jews. Jesus answered, nam- 
ing a few of them : 

"Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt 
not speak falsely of thy neighbour, Honour thy father and 
thy mother. ' ' 

' ' All these commandments have I kept from my youth 
up," said the young man. "What lack I yet?" 

And Jesus, looking down at him, seeing his eager face 
and his eyes aflame with aspiration, felt a great love for 
the young man surge up in his heart. He knew that the 
young man was one of the Pharisees, that he was a ruler 
with much power; and neither the rulers nor the Pharisees 
had generally been willing to listen to the teaching of the 
Master. But the eyes of this young man were clear and 
honest, they looked straight into the eye of Jesus; and 
though he was a ruler, he did not hesitate in his fine robe 
to kneel there in the dust. Why, with this faith and en- 
thusiasm, should he not really follow the Christ, leaving 
behind him the worldly things which he had loved in the 
past? At that moment it seemed possible to Jesus. And 
he put out his hand and raised the young man to his 
feet. 

For a moment they stood there, face to face, and eye 
to eye, the Messiah in his white garments and the young 
ruler in his embroidered robe. And the two, so different 
in external things, felt one with each other in heart. The 
flame of feeling which we call sympathy was burning be- 
tween them ; and Jesus said, very gently, laying his hand 
upon the arm of the young ruler : 

' ' If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, 



JESUS AND THE RICH YOUNG MAN 237 

and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven : and come and follow me. ' ' 

Over the eyes of the young man there came a shadow 
of sadness; for he was very rich, and Jesus had told him 
to give away all that he had. He thought of his palaces, 
of his gold and jewels; but, most of all, he thought of his 
friends who would ridicule and blame him if he should 
do as the Master said. A man who would have no fear of 
poverty or hardship, is often afraid of the laughter of his 
friends. And the eyes of the young ruler fell before the 
steady eyes of Jesus, which seemed to be looking down 
into his soul. Then, without another word, he turned 
sadly away from the one whom he had called Master, and 
with slow step and head bent low in thought, he walked 
back along the road toward the city — back to his palace 
and his riches. 

Jesus watched him for a few moments, and his eyes 
were sad and thoughtful. Then, turning to the disciples 
who were with him, he said : 

"Verily, I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly 
enter into the kingdom of heaven. ' ' 

His disciples looked at him with wonder, for before 
they met Jesus, they had always been taught to respect 
rich men for the sake of their riches. The Master, seeing 
the puzzled look in their eyes, said to them : 

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
God." 

And the disciples, who had been puzzled before, were 
now amazed, and they said to Jesus : 

"Who then can be saved?" 

Jesus saw that they were deeply troubled in their 
minds by what he had just said; and he added, very 
gently: 



238 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

' ' The things which are impossible with men, are pos- 
sible with God. " 

Then honest Peter, looking after the brilliant red-robed 
figure of the young ruler as it disappeared in the distance, 
and looking from that to the plain and dusty garments of 
himself and his fellow disciples, said to the Master, with 
just a little touch of conscious virtue : 

"Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee. 
What shall we have therefore?" 

And Jesus answered him, saying: 

' ' There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or 
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, 
for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an 
hundredfold, now in this time, houses, and brethren, and 
sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with 'per- 
secutions ; and in the world to come eternal life. But 
many that are first shall be last, and the last first. ' ' 

And the disciples, feeling reproved for having prided 
themselves upon the fact that they were faithful to Jesus, 
when every beautiful thing in their lives had been given 
them freely by him, walked slowly down the road after 
the Master. And each man asked himself in his heart, 
what were the little things which he had sacrificed in 
comparison with what Jesus had given him? Would he 
not rather walk with Jesus, cold and hungry and home- 
less along the roads, than to have all the riches of the 
world without him? For the disciples really loved their 
Master, though he was far too great for them to under- 
stand. And when they thought of the rich young ruler, 
in his embroidered red gown, and of the sadness of his 
eyes as he turned away from Jesus, they thanked God that 
they themselves were poor, and shabby, and that no pal- 
aces raised their carven walls between them and the 
Master whom they worshipped. 



JESUS AND THE RICH YOUNG MAN 239 

Jesus, feeling the sadness of their hearts, turned and 
looked at them with his great loving eyes. Then he 
smiled, and they could not feel sad any longer. And he 
began to tell them lovely things about the kingdom of 
heaven, where they would be as the angels, standing with 
him in the presence of God. And the breeze blew softly 
through the trees, and the little river sang beside the 
road, and the birds twittered in the branches, and the 
great golden sun sank slowly to his home in the western 
sky, leaving a blaze of crimson and orange clouds behind 
him. And Jesus and his friends walked on together 
toward the sunset. 

Back in the city they had left, the rich young ruler 
sat alone in a splendid room in his palace, brooding. 
He wished that he were a poor man, even a beggar, that 
he might follow Jesus. He looked about him at the gor- 
geous fabrics upon the floor and on the walls. Why 
could he not exchange them for the green grass by the 
wayside, and the freedom of a wandering disciple of the 
Master? The ceiling of his palace room was made of 
precious marbles, which glittered in the lamplight. Why 
could he not be lying with those other men out under the 
stars, which glittered far more brilliantly? He did not 
want to be a ruler. He wanted to be a disciple. But, as 
Jesus had said: "It is easier for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the 
kingdom of God. ' ' 

Late in the night, a servant of the young ruler passed 
his door, and seeing his lamp alight, looked in. His 
master was still sitting there, with his chin in his hands, 
and his eyes fixed on vacancy. Far off somewhere in the 
darkness, a dog was howling. And the servant stole 
softly out, leaving his master alone. Then the servant 



240 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

went to the bare closet which served him for a chamber, 
and lying down upon the hard board which was his bed, 
he dreamed beautiful dreams of Jesus and the kingdom 
of heaven. For what the young ruler had not dared to 
be, his servant was already. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOHN 

Among those who followed Jesus were many women, 
though they did not follow him everywhere, nor at all 
times. I have told you how his own mother loved to go 
with him from city to city, hearing him preach and see- 
ing him heal the sick, who everywhere crowded round 
him. I have told you of Mary Magdalene, the beautiful 
woman who in the past had not been good, but who now 
was perhaps better than any of the other women, except 
the mother of Jesus. I have told you of the sisters, Mary 
and Martha, whose brother, Lazarus, Jesus had raised from 
the tomb. And now I will tell you about Salome, the 
wife of Zebedee the fisherman, and the mother of the dis- 
ciples James and John. 

Salome also loved Jesus much. In one way she cared 
more for him than for her own sons ; but in another way 
she did not, for the love of a mother is unlike any other 
love on earth. She adored Jesus as her Master, and the 
Master of her sons ; but she loved James and John in the 
same way she had loved them when they were little babies 
— her little babies. They seemed to her more wonderful 
than any other men in the world, excepting Jesus ; and to 
her, as to so many others, Jesus seemed something more 
than a man. At any moment had she seen Jesus rise up 
into the clouds, like the angel which she felt him in her 
heart to be, Salome would not have been surprised. 

John, as you know, was quite young, but James was 
241 



242 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

older, and the mother of these two men was almost an old 
woman. Her black hair was thickly streaked with grey, 
and though her face was strong and even handsome, as 
the faces of old women often are, it was marked with 
many lines which the passing years had left there. But 
the eyes of Salome were as bright as the eyes of a young 
woman, for she had a strong will and a high courage. 
Once, when her sons were babies, she had attacked a wild 
animal which had come toward her children as if to harm 
them. Where her love was concerned, Salome knew no 
fear. Some of the women who followed Jesus were so 
timid that they were almost afraid to speak to him until 
he spoke to them ; but Salome was not like that. It was 
because she loved the Master that it never occurred to her 
to be afraid of him, as some of the others were who loved 
him just as much. Love expresses itself differently in 
different persons. 

Salome and several of the other women had joined 
Jesus and the men disciples as they came down toward 
Jericho that spring, a little while before the annual feast 
of the Passover at Jerusalem. 

It had been a little time since Salome had seen Jesus 
or her two sons; and it seemed to her now that Peter, 
whom Jesus had called "the foundation stone of his 
church," was becoming more important than her sons, 
James and John, in the little wandering community of 
disciples. And the heart of Salome was troubled. She 
liked Peter, she liked his honest face and his blunt ways, 
and she knew how much he had done to forward the re- 
ligion of Jesus ; and yet — Salome was a mother, and she 
was just a little jealous. 

John had whispered to her several times that he was 
more dearly beloved by Jesus than any of the other dis- 
ciples ; but Jesus himself had never told Salome so. In- 



THE MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOHN 243 

deed, it seemed to be his purpose that all his friends 
should feel absolutely equal, and that no one of them 
should exalt himself above the others. He wanted them 
to love each other, and to forget themselves. Salome liked 
all the disciples, except perhaps Judas Iscariot, and she 
only disliked him because John said that he was not hon- 
est, that often, when he wanted something for himself, he 
took the coins from the moneybag which Jesus had given 
him to carry. Salome did not really care whether Judas 
took silver or not; but she cared very much when Peter 
seemed to be given the first place, which she thought be- 
longed to her own big sons. 

One day the Master had been telling his friends about 
the kingdom of heaven, where he and his disciples should 
sit on thrones and judge the tribes of Israel. When he 
had finished talking, Salome came up to him and asked 
if she could speak to him alone. Jesus was so great that 
he never tried to make himself seem distant or unap- 
proachable, and he now went with Salome a little to one 
side, away from the others, that she might say to him 
whatever was in her mind. 

Her two sons, James and John, seeing their mother 
and the Master together, came also and stood with them. 
And Salome fell down on her knees before Jesus, worship- 
ping him, and asked if he would give her something which 
she much desired. 

Jesus always loved to make others happy, but he was 
far too wise to promise anything beforehand, so he asked 
Salome : 

"What wilt thou?" 

And Salome said, pointing to James and John : 

' ' Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on 
thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy king- 
dom. ' ' 



244 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Jesus looked at her for a moment in silence, then he 
answered : 

' ' Ye know not what ye ask. ' ' 

Turning to the two young men, who stood eager and 
expectant before him, he asked them : 

"Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, 
and to be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised 
with?" 

By the cup that he should drink of, Jesus probably 
meant the cup of sorrow, and by the baptism that he was 
baptised with — his own blood. 

' ' We are able, ' ' answered James and John, for they 
did not understand the tremendous claim they made. 

"Ye shall drink indeed of my cup," replied Jesus, 
"and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised 
with : but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not 
mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is 
prepared of my Father. ' ' 

Salome and her sons had not noticed, so intent were 
they on their question and its answer, that the ten other 
men had come up behind them and had heard all they had 
said. And Peter and Andrew and Philip and the others 
were filled with indignation at James and John. How 
dared they ask the Master to sit on his right and left hand 
in the kingdom of heaven? It seemed to them presump- 
tion, deserving some grave punishment. But Jesus smiled 
gently, that they might know he was not seriously dis- 
pleased with these, his children, even when they were 
presumptuous; and calling all the disciples to him, he 
tried to make them understand a little better what it 
meant to be a disciple. He said : 

"Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise 
dominion over them, and they that are great, exercise 
authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: 



THE MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOHN 245 

but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your 
minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him 
be your servant : even as the Son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a 
ransom for many. ' ' 

James and John would have felt ashamed if it had not 
been for the sweetness of Jesus, as he taught them a better 
way to be great than by exalting themselves. And they 
remembered that their Master, though he was the Messiah, 
had never demanded honours for himself. They had seen 
him perform the lowest services for those who were sick 
or afflicted; they had seen him eat with publicans and 
sinners, whom the self-righteous Pharisees would not even 
look at ; they had seen him sleep at night with his beauti- 
ful and sacred head pillowed in the dust of the road. And 
in one place some months before, when the people, aroused 
to enthusiasm by his miracles, had wanted to make him a 
king, he had passed quietly away from them and had gone 
back to the open fields and to his homelessness And the 
truth came to James and John with unforgettable force, 
that it was better to serve mankind as Jesus served it, 
than to sit upon his right and left hand in the kingdom 
of heaven. 

Their eyes filled with tears as they looked at their 
Master, and they wondered how it was that he could turn 
every unpleasant thing into something beautiful. For 
their fellow disciples, who had been angry with them a 
moment before, now looked at them with gentleness and 
brotherly love; and one of them, seeing the string of 
James's shoe unloosed, stooped down and tied it for him. 

And Salome, the mother, began to wonder what she 
could do to help the others. And that night, when she 
served their simple wayside supper to the men, she gave 
the largest pieces of meat and the thickest slices of bread 



246 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

to Judas and to Peter, giving to her own dear sons the 
fragments which were left. And when, turning from 
her service, she saw the large and loving eyes of Jesus 
fixed upon her face, she knew that he understood her; and 
she came to see that for a mother to exalt her sons at the 
expense of others, merely because they are hers and be- 
cause she loves them, is but another and more subtle form 
of selfishness, for which there is no place in the kingdom 
of heaven. 



CHAPTER XXV 

TWO MEN OF JERICHO 

Jesus came down toward Jericho on his last journey to 
Jerusalem. He had already told his twelve disciples that 
they were going to the Passover, in order that all the 
things written by the old prophets concerning the Son of 
man should be accomplished ; that he should be delivered 
unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, who should 
condemn him to death, and should deliver him to the 
Gentiles, and that they should scourge him, and spit upon 
him, and kill him, and that on the third day he should 
rise again. 

The disciples had not fully understood what he meant ; 
but one of them, Judas Iscariot, had been much distressed 
by these words of the Master. Judas had himself been 
ill-treated in the past, before he knew Jesus, and the 
thought that he was going to have more trouble made him 
frown and mutter to himself. All the way up to Jericho 
he was silent and preoccupied. He wondered how the 
others could smile and talk as if nothing had happened. 
To him the prediction of Jesus that they were going to 
meet with persecution was a more important happening 
than the healing of the sick, the lame and the blind. 
Judas felt that he had had enough of trouble in the past. 
He wanted the kingdom of heaven to appear in the form of 
earthly glory, as so many others do at the present time. 

The roads along which they travelled that day were no 
longer the blossoming lanes of Galilee, but the stony ways 
247 



248 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

to the north of Jerusalem — the road to Jericho. The city 
of Jericho itself was rather a pleasant place, with its 
gardens of spices ; it was at the junction of several routes, 
and there were always strangers there. As the Master 
and his friends approached the city they were joined by 
many people. Some of them had seen Jesus before in 
other places, and really believed that he was the Messiah 
whom God had sent to save the Jews. Others, and by 
far the greater number, followed him out of curiosity. 
For the fame of Jesus had now spread all over Syria, and 
wherever he went he was followed by crowds. Some, who 
were weary of the world, wanted to hear about the king- 
dom of heaven; others wanted to be healed of their dis- 
eases; others, still, wanted the coppers which Judas carried 
in the moneybag and which the Master always shared 
with those who had no food. 

It seemed to the disciples that the face of Jesus was 
very sad that day. He had been walking alone, before 
them, and he had walked with his head bent as if in 
troubled thought. For Jesus understood what the disciples 
did not seem to grasp, that the priests and Pharisees 
were already plotting his death. Yet, notwithstanding 
this knowledge, he intended to go down to Jerusalem for 
the feast of the Passover. He might have escaped his 
enemies by going back again into Galilee, but he would 
not go back; for it seemed to him that God had told him 
to go forward, that the prophesies must be fulfilled to the 
letter. The old prophets had declared, as Jesus had told 
his disciples, that the Messiah, when he came, should be 
betrayed by the Jews, and mocked, and scourged, and 
killed. It was strange that none of the disciples, except 
Judas, had seemed to understand. So Jesus walked sadly 
at the head of his little company of followers, as they 
came down to Jericho. 



TWO MEN OF JERICHO 249 

Sitting on the ground by the roadside, his back 
against a stone wall and his ragged garment trailing in 
the dust, was a blind man named Bartimseus, and he was 
begging of the passers-by. His unwashed hand, long, 
thin and clawlike, was extended; his sightless eyes were 
rolled upward in his head; and whenever he heard a step 
approaching, he began his shrill, quavering, monotonous 
appeal : 

' ' Kind friend, a penny, only a penny, for I am blind. ' ' 

Bartimseus had been sitting there in one spot for a 
long time, ever since the early morning. Some hours 
before he had been cold, and his teeth had chattered as 
he reiterated his one cry, at the sound of every footstep : 
" Kind friend, a penny, only a penny, for I am blind. ' ' 
But now the noonday sun shone warm against the wall, 
and blind Bartirnaeus no longer shivered. His voice had 
lost something of its quaver, though it was still shrill, 
as he repeated, over and over again, "Kind friend, a 
penny,, only a penny, for I am blind. ' ' 

He was just beginning to wonder when the little son 
of a kind neighbour, who always led him to his place by 
the wall each morning and led him back to his wretched 
hovel at night, would come and bring him his noonday 
bite of bread and meat. Bartimseus was hungry, but the 
pennies in his pouch were few. He had heard many people 
pass that morning, he had reminded every passer-by that 
he was blind; but the heart of the world seemed hard 
that day, and each man kept his pennies for himself. 
Why did not the good little boy come to bring him his 
dinner? Had he forgotten him? But who should trouble 
himself to remember a blind beggar? 

Bartimseus was not bitter, for he had a loving heart 
under his rags; and years ago, before he lost his sight, 
he had had a little son of his own whom he had worked for 



250 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

with his hands. But the little son was dead, and every 
one else who had loved Bartimseus was dead; and as no 
one would give a blind man work to do, Bartimseus had 
finally laid aside his pride and sat down in the dust by 
the wayside to beg. Not every one who holds out an un- 
washed hand and asks the passers-by for pennies, has 
come to that sad state through laziness. 

"If I could only see ! ' ' moaned Bartimseus to himself. 
" If I could only see the sun which now warms me with 
its heat! If I could see the face of the kind little boy who 
seems to have forgotten me this day! But perhaps he is 
playing somewhere with other children, bless his heart! 
And I am not yet so very hungry, after all." 

In the distance Bartimseus heard the sound of many 
footsteps and the babble of many voices. What could it 
be, he wondered? Some passing caravan of traders, 
maybe, who would fill his hand with pennies, so that he 
could pay the mother of the little boy for the bread and 
meat, and for the bite of hot cake which she gave him 
every night. The noise of the approaching multitude 
drew nearer and nearer; but there were so many voices 
on the air that no one noticed the quavering tones of the 
blind beggar. 

Suddenly he heard, through the sound of many foot- 
falls, a light pattering step which he recognised. It was 
his friend, the little boy. He felt the child's soft hands 
upon his own, stretched out as usual for alms ; but there 
was nothing in those hands. The boy had forgotten the 
bread and meat! 

"What is it?" cried Bartimseus, clutching fehe child. 
' ' Who is passing? Tell me quick ! ' ' 

"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," said the sweet voice 
of the child. "My mother told me he was coming." 

The heart of blind Bartimseus leaped beneath his 



TWO MEN OF JERICHO 251 

rags. He had heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and how he 
had raised the dead from their graves and had given sight 
to the blind. And in a loud voice he cried : 

"Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!" 

"Be silent," cried the men who went before Jesus, 
"be silent, beggar, and do not trouble the Master." 

But Bartimseus would not be silent. He cried again 
and again, each time louder than before : 

"Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me! Son 
of David, have mercy on me ! " 

It seemed to Bartimseus at that moment that if Jesus 
of Nazareth could only hear his voice above the noise of 
the multitude, if he could only call loudly enough to make 
him hear, that the marvellous man of whom so many 
stories were told would restore the sight to his blinded 
eyes. His heart beat violently. There was a sound as of 
waters in his ears. His old clawlike hands clutched 
the hands of the little boy until the child winced. Jesus 
of Nazareth — who gave sight to the blind ! 

And Jesus, as he passed by, heard the voice of some 
one calling on him for mercy. And he forgot the trouble 
that was waiting for him in Jerusalem. How could he 
think of himself, when some one cried for mercy? There 
was in the voice he heard a tone of conviction, of faith. 
Surely the man who called like that believed on him. 

Then the Master, coming nearer, saw the blind man by 
the wayside, his ragged garment trailing in the dust, his 
thin hands groping in the air, his sightless eyes wide open 
now in the sunshine. And a great pity filled the heart 
of Jesus. He wanted to do all the good he could in the 
little time that was left to him. He told one of the dis- 
ciples to bring the blind man to him. 

"Be of good comfort, ' ' said the disciple to Bartimseus, 
"hecalleth thee." 



252 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Then those who watched saw a sight which they never 
iorgot. They saw the face of a beggar, old, seamed with 
wrinkles and unclean, with sightless eyes, become sud- 
denly beautiful. A flame blazed behind that wrinkled 
countenance — the flame of faith. Casting aside his tat- 
tered, dust-stained cloak, blind Bartimaeus staggered to 
his feet, stretching out his hands, as if groping to find the 
way. The disciple would have led him to the Master; 
but the little boy, the beggar's friend, slipped quickly 
between them. 

"I always lead Bartimaeus," said the child, and it 
was he who led the blind beggar to Jesus. 

"What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" asked 
Jesus, when Bartimaeus stood before him. 

"That I may receive my sight," the blind man an- 
swered, and his tones thrilled the heart of Jesus. 

"Receive thy sight!" said the Master. The power in 
his voice was indescribable. It was a command, which 
no believing soul could resist. It reminded the disciples 
of that other time when he had said, "Lazarus, come 
forth." 

And the spirit of the blind man, which came from 
God and which recognised the call of Jesus, even as 
Lazarus had recognised it — the spirit of the blind man 
stirred behind his eyes. Suddenly the darkness in which 
he had lived so long changed to a glimmering twilight, 
the blackness became greyness. Then the greyness was 
shot across with streaks of rosy-white, which changed 
and moved and circled before him. And in the moving 
brightness he saw a face. At first he thought it was the 
face of God ; then, looking closer, he realised that it was 
the face of a man — a man who stood before him. Moving 
his eyes, he saw other faces and forms, and behind the 
forms were trees, and the sky — yes, and the brilliant sun! 




:*" 



••• 



f 1 



H.Mo 



Jesus Healing Blind Bartimaeus 



TWO MEN OF JERICHO 253 

The blind man, unable to endure so much light after 
his long darkness, covered his eyes with his hands, 
crying : 

"I see! I see!" 

And Jesus said: 

' ' Thy faith hath made thee whole. ' ' 

Then the blind man, taking his hands away from his 
dazzled eyes, opened them again slowly, carefully, until 
he saw once more the face which he had seen first — the 
face of Jesus of Nazareth, which he had called to him out 
of the darkness wherein he dwelt. He was so absorbed 
in looking at that face that he forgot all else, until he 
heard a little wistful voice : 

"Bartimseus, Bartimseus, will you not look at me V ' 

Turning toward the voice, he saw the face of a little 
boy, sweet and tender, with wide eyes raised to his. And 
Bartimseus wondered if he had died suddenly and gone 
to heaven; for the face of the little boy was like the face 
of his own child, dead twenty years before. 

"Follow me," said the loving voice of Jesus, as he 
moved on toward the city of Jericho. 

And Bartimseus, who had been blind so long and 
who now saw, took in his hand the hand of the little child, 
and the two walked slowly after Jesus. But every few 
steps the old man turned and looked down at the face of 
the boy. And whenever he looked down, he smiled. 

How lovely the world was ! The trees wore the tender 
green of spring, and many of them were in blossom. The 
sky was a pure blue, and here and there soft, fleecy clouds 
moved slowly across the heavens. It seemed to Bartimaeus 
that the world was far more beautiful than when he was 
young. In those days he had taken the beauty of the 
world as a matter of course ; but now, after his long blind- 
ness, it came to him as a revelation. He wondered that 



254 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

he had never noticed in the old days how graceful were 
the branches of the palm-trees as they waved in the 
breeze. 

In the city of Jericho, the news had gone forth that 
Jesus of Nazareth was coming, and there was great excite- 
ment among the people. Crowds filled the streets, all 
looking in the direction from which Jesus was said to be 
approaching. As men stood together, they told each other 
stories they had heard about this man, whom so many 
persons believed to be the Messiah the Jews were waiting 
for; how a blazing star had appeared in the East before 
his birth; how he had turned water into wine at the 
marriage in Cana of Galilee ; how for the last two years 
he had been travelling around the country working miracles 
and healing the sick and afflicted. But, oftener than any 
other story, men told of how he had raised Lazarus from 
the dead, in Bethany near Jerusalem, only a little while 
before. 

Among the men who lived in Jericho was a rich tax- 
collector, or publican, named Zacchseus. All the Jews of 
the city disliked him, as they always disliked those who 
gathered the taxes for the Romans. The word publican 
in Syria meant a tax-collector, and so unpopular were 
these officials, that the phrase "publicans and sinners'" 
was in common use among the Pharisees and Sadducees. 
A self-respecting Jew would not eat in the house of a 
publican, and when he met one in the street, he would 
hardly speak to him. 

Now this publican, Zacchaeus, was a man of very short 
stature ; and when he saw the crowd which came down the 
street before Jesus, and when he looked at the other crowds 
gathered along the way, he realised that he himself would 
not be able to see the Master at all, because he was so 
short. So he ran on ahead of the people, and climbed up 



TWO MEN OF JERICHO 255 

into a sycamore-tree, that he might look down and see 
Jesus when he passed by. 

When Jesus came along the road, preceded and followed 
by a great multitude, some instinct made him lift his 
eyes to the sycamore-tree in which sat Zacchseus. The 
little man was curled up on one of the lower boughs, he 
was leaning forward, one hand was clutching a branch on 
either side of him, and his homely face was alight with 
interest. Surely, thought Jesus, this man must earnestly 
desire to see him! He remembered the enthusiasm of 
blind Bartirneeus a little while before, the faith which had 
made him whole. Perhaps this man also had great faith. 

Jesus knew how the Jews despised the publican, not- 
withstanding his riches; but the Master always judged 
people for what they really were in their hearts, not for 
what somebody else might think they were. And as he 
passed beneath the sycamore-tree into which the publican 
had climbed, Jesus called to him : 

"Zacchseus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I 
must abide at thy house. ' ' 

Zacchseus was so surprised that he nearly fell out of 
the tree. Would the Messiah of the Jews eat in the house 
of a publican who was hated by the Jews? But there was 
no time for him to consider the question, for the Master 
was there below, demanding hospitality. And Zacchseus 
clambered down out of the tree as fast as he could. He 
scratched his hands a little in his haste, but he was too 
excited to notice such a trifle as that, and in another 
moment he was out of the tree and on the ground. 

Jesus looked down at the little man, standing there 
before him in the road. The homely face of Zacchseus 
looked almost handsome, as he expressed his joy that 
Jesus of Nazareth would eat with him. And the Master 
wondered how the Jews could despise this good man, even 



256 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

though he was obliged to serve the Romans and to take 
their taxes. For Jesus felt the great loving heart which 
beat under the publican's coat. 

When the Jews in the crowd saw Zacchseus walking 
beside Jesus, and when they saw that the Master was going 
to the publican's house, they were amazed. And they 
murmured among themselves : 

' ' He is gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner ! ' ' 

They forgot the things which Jesus had said on simi- 
lar occasions: "I am not come to call the righteous, but 
sinners." And, "They that be whole, need not a physi- 
cian." And, "What man of you, having a hundred 
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety- 
and-nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is 
lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he 
layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. ' ' For Jesus meant 
by all these sayings that it was the very sinners whom the 
Pharisees despised, that he specially loved to bring to the 
knowledge of the kingdom of heaven. He ate with publi- 
cans and gathered sinners about him that he might make 
them good. And so the Pharisees, who did not care to 
make other people good, but only wanted to seem good 
themselves, were shocked. 

Zacchseus was so delighted at the idea of entertaining 
the Master at his house, that he called all his servants to- 
gether and gave orders that a great feast should be pre- 
pared, not only for Jesus and his disciples and friends, 
but for everybody else in the crowd of his followers who 
was hungry. And the crowd, as we know, included Barti- 
mseus who had been the blind beggar, but who now saw 
more clearly than others who had not been blind. 

So Bartimseus did not need, after all, the bread and 
meat which the little boy had forgotten to bring to him 
for his dinner. For both he and the child could eat at 



TWO MEN OF JERICHO 257 

the house of the rich Zacchaeus, who loved all the world 
that day because he loved the Master. And you will al- 
ways find that that is one of the surest proofs of loving 
Jesus. 

When the feast was begun, and Zacchaeus the publican 
eat at his own table with Jesus beside him, and the disci- 
ples and friends were all around, he was so happy that he 
wanted to make a public demonstration of his faith in the 
Master and in the truths which he taught. And the little 
man stood up before them all, and said: 

"Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I will give to the 
poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false 
accusation, I will restore him fourfold. ' ' 

The heart of Jesus was touched by this declaration of 
Zacchaeus, and he said to his disciples and friends, and 
to all the others who listened : 

' ' This day is salvation come to this house, f orsomuch 
as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is 
come to seek and to save that which was lost. ' ' 

The disciples greeted Zacchaeus as a brother and as a 
true follower of Jesus. And Bartimaeus, who had been 
blind, watched the company from the doorway; for the 
room in which Jesus sat was not large enough to hold 
every one, and some of them had to eat outside. And 
Bartimseus rejoiced, because the rich Zacchaeus, whose 
voice he well knew, though of course he had not seen him 
before, had never passed the wall where he sat and begged, 
without putting money into his outstretched hand. Now 
that Bartimaeus could see, perhaps Zacchaeus would give 
him work to do and pay him wages, so that he need no 
longer be a beggar by the wayside. 

As we know, Jesus was fond of teaching by parables, 
that is, by telling stories with a hidden moral. And that 
day at the feast given by Zacchaeus he told the parable of 



258 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the talents. They were coming toward Jerusalem now, 
and Jesus knew that his work — and his life — were nearing 
an end. He wanted to impress upon his friends that, 
when he was gone, they should each make good use of the 
treasure of faith and love which he had given them. He 
wanted them to increase their faith by use, and not hide 
it away. He wanted them to feel, when he was gone, that 
he was not gone forever; but that he should return and 
demand of them an accounting of their services for him 
and for God. So he told them the parable of the talents, 
and there was a hidden meaning in every word of it. 

Jesus said: 

' ' For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling 
into a far country, who called his own servants, and de- 
livered unto them his goods. 

"And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, 
and to another one ; to every man according to his several 
ability; and straightway took his journey. 

' ' Then he that had received the five talents went and 
traded with the same, and made them other five talents. 
And likewise he that had received two, he also gained 
other two. But he that had received one, went and digged 
in the earth, and hid his lord's money. 

"After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh, 
and reckoneth with them. 

' ' And so he that had received five talents came and 
brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst 
unto me five talents : behold, I have gained beside them 
five talents more. 

"His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, 
I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into 
the joy of thy lord. 

' ' He also that had received two talents came and said, 



TWO MEN OF JERICHO 259 

Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents : behold, I have 
gained two other talents beside them. 

' ' His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faith- 
ful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I 
will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the 
joy of thy lord. 

' ' Then he which had received the one talent came and 
said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reap- 
ing where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou 
hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid 
thy talent in the earth : lo, there thou hast that is thine. 

"His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked 
and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I 
sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou 
oughtest therefore to have put my money to the ex- 
changers, and then at my coming I should have received 
mine own with usury. 

' ' Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto 
him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that 
hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but 
from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that 
which he hath. 

' ' And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer dark- 
ness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

Each man who listened with understanding to the 
parable of the talents, took the meaning home to himself. 
Zacchseus the publican, who was rich, understood it to 
mean that he must give an accounting to God for the use 
which he made of his wealth. 

To Bartimaeus, who had been blind, it meant that he 
must make good use of the sight which Jesus had brought 
back to his eyes. 

And the twelve disciples, those who were nearest to 
the Master, understood by this parable that they must 



260 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

spread the knowledge of Christ and of the kingdom of 
heaven; that they must teach to others every beautiful 
thing which Jesus had taught to them; that they must 
double the knowledge of God and His love in the world, 
as the talents given to the faithful servants had been 
doubled in their master's absence. 

So great was the charm of Jesus as he told the story, 
that every man present desired, above all other things, to 
prove himself a faithful servant — even Judas Iscariot. 

The dinner was now ended. The Master rising from 
the table and calling his disciples, prepared to go on 
toward Jerusalem. 

To the two men of Jericho, Zacchseus and Bartimseus, 
the passing of Jesus through their city had been the be- 
ginning of a new life. And to-day we should probably 
never think of the little Jewish town of Jericho, had it 
not been for the eager and peculiar response of those two 
men to the summons: "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE ALABASTER BOX 

It was six days before the feast of the Passover, when 
Jesus and his disciples and friends came up to Jerusalem 
for the last time. But they did not go at once into the 
great and unsympathetic city, where the priests and 
Pharisees were even then stirring up anger against the 
Master. They stopped first at the pretty little village of 
Bethany, the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus, 
where Jesus some weeks before had raised his friend from 
the tomb. 

Bethany was only a short walk from Jerusalem. It 
was on the summit of a hill, the slopes of which were 
covered with olive-trees, and fig-trees, and palm-trees. 
Jesus had always loved it, since first he found there the 
delightful home of Lazarus and his sisters. And now 
especially, as he and his friends drew slowly and some- 
what wearily toward Jerusalem, the tranquil slopes of the 
green hill looking toward Bethany seemed the way to a 
haven of peace. Though it was so near to Jerusalem, the 
centre of strife and discord, Jesus knew that at Bethany 
he would find only harmony and love. And so he went 
there. 

The family at Bethany had been expecting him for 
several days. Lazarus, even more than the others, was 
anxious to see Jesus. Since he had been brought back 
from the tomb into the light of the sun, many things had 
happened to trouble the brother of Martha and Mary. He 
261 



262 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

had become altogether too famous for his peace of mind. 
Whenever he descended the quiet hill, covered with olives 
and figs and palms, and went into the busy city of Jeru- 
salem, he was beset by all sorts of people who asked him 
questions about the life beyond the tomb. Had he seen 
God? Had he talked with Elias? Had he been asleep 
in the bosom of Abraham when Jesus called him back to 
earth? Lazarus did not know how to answer these ques- 
tions. He did not think it was right to answer them at 
all. He was not certain that Jesus would wish him to 
answer them. And yet, some of those who questioned 
him seemed honest in their desire for knowledge of that 
unknown world where he had been. 

But there were others whose questions did not seem to 
be honest. These were the Pharisees, those rigid fol- 
lowers of the letter of the Jewish law who cared not for 
the spirit. Some of their queries filled Lazarus with 
uneasiness of soul. Had he seen Satan, the prince of 
devils? Was it not by the help of Satan that Jesus had 
called him back from the grave? When the Pharisees, 
with sidelong glances, asked these questions, Lazarus 
would usually turn and walk away. In the beginning 
he had answered simply, "No," but as the Pharisees 
troubled him more and more, he tried to avoid them. 
If Jesus would only come back to Bethany and tell him 
what to say when people talked to him like that ! 

But there were other happenings which troubled Laz- 
arus even more than the questions of the Pharisees. 
Sometimes, when he walked alone upon the hill below 
Bethany, he would see a suspicious-looking person fol- 
lowing him. Once, in the dark, an unknown man had 
nearly pushed him off a precipice; and several times he 
had been accosted by insolent strangers who tried to 
involve him in a quarrel. 



THE ALABASTER BOX 263 

What was the matter with all these people? Lazarus 
wondered. Did they desire to kill him, to get him out 
of the way? Were they trying to worry him until he 
should become insane? In Syria at that time insane 
men were believed to be possessed by devils. Lazarus 
knew that if he should become insane from the persecu- 
tions of these unknown persons, the enemies of Jesus 
would say that he and Jesus both were possessed by 
devils. He only now began to understand how strong, 
and how unscrupulous, were the Master's enemies in 
Jerusalem. Lazarus almost wished that Jesus had left 
him in the grave. 

He did not tell his sisters about the troubles he was 
having, for he did not wish to worry them. But as the 
time for the feast of the Passover drew near, Mary and 
Martha seemed almost as anxious as Lazarus that Jesus 
should come. They used to go out of the house a dozen 
times a day and look down the road, to see if their great 
friend was coming. They, too, were sometimes troubled 
by neighbours, as well as strangers, who asked them 
questions about their brother. 

So, on the afternoon when they went out as usual to 
look for Jesus, and really saw him coming along the road, 
they shouted with joy. Then the three ran down the road 
together to meet the Master. As he greeted them, they 
saw a look on his face which they had never seen there 
before — a look of unutterable sadness. They had seen 
him weep when he stood before the grave of Lazarus, but 
he had not looked like this. Had some trouble come to 
him? they wondered. The disciples also seemed bur- 
dened with anxiety. 

Martha and Mary and Lazarus lived in the house of an 
old relative of theirs named Simon. Simon had been a 
leper before he knew Jesus, that is, he had had a very 



264 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

loathsome disease which had made people afraid to come 
near him; but no one was afraid of him any more. 

When Simon and Martha saw that Jesus was sad, they 
determined to cheer him with a pleasant supper. And to 
this supper they invited not only his disciples and friends, 
but many of their neighbours, and a few persons from 
Jerusalem who had met the Master on the way and had 
followed him to Bethany. The family at Bethany were 
just a little proud of their friendship with so great a man 
as Jesus. There is often that little touch of pride in 
even the purest love. 

Most of the labour of preparing the supper fell, as 
usual, on the broad shoulders of Martha; for Mary wanted 
to sit at the feet of Jesus and to hear him talk. She 
wanted also to talk to that other Mary, who was called Mary 
Magdalene because she came from the village of Magdala. 
She, with several of the other women who were friends of 
Jesus, had come up with him to Jerusalem for the feast of 
the Passover. The house at Bethany was very full that 
afternoon. 

It was a large company that sat down to supper, and 
the faithful Martha served them. At the table, besides 
Jesus and his friends and disciples and the invited 
guests, were Lazarus and Simon, the master of the house. 

Even at the table, it was plain to those who loved 
Jesus that he was very sad. He talked, as usual; he even 
smiled. But when he told a lovely story about the king- 
dom of heaven, it seemed to the two Marys who watched 
him that he was wishing he might be there himself, and 
away from the sadness of the world. They wondered 
what hidden sorrow had come to him. They did not 
know that the priests and Pharisees were at that very mo- 
ment plotting to kill him — but Jesus knew. 

Lazarus was so happy to see Jesus that he did not 



THE ALABASTER BOX 265 

even notice the sadness of the Master. He sat near him 
at the table, and could hardly take his eyes from the face 
he loved so much. He was glad now that Jesus had 
brought him back to life, even though the Pharisees and 
their hired servants had lately made that life a burden to 
him by their persecutions. He had been afraid; but who 
could be afraid when Jesus was with him? He did not 
know — poor Lazarus ! — that those who desire to do evil 
will do it, in spite of God and all His angels. 

Lazarus was too much absorbed in the Master to notice 
with what strange eyes all the neighbours present were 
looking at himself. ' ' The man who had been dead and 
buried for four days! And here he was, eating and 
drinking, as if nothing had happened to him. Why, his 
cheeks were even red ! " So thought these good friends 
and neighbours of Lazarus, and they were so excited that 
they could hardly eat Martha's good supper. 

But, though they stared at Lazarus, they stared still 
harder at Jesus. A man who could say to the dead, 
' ' Arise, ' ' and they arose ! It is difficult for us, in our 
cold and skeptical age, even to imagine the feelings of 
these people about the Master. Among the nations of the 
East there is more faith and more enthusiasm. That is 
why all the great religions of the earth have come from 
Asia. The men and women who were gathered there at 
the house of Simon the leper were not afraid or ashamed 
to show their feelings. 

Among those who were happiest to be with Jesus that 
evening was Mary Magdalene, the beautiful woman who 
had been possessed by seven devils, but whom the Master 
had saved and made good again. She could never do 
enough for Jesus, either in love or service. Had he told 
her to lie down and die, she would have done it gladly. 
She would have done anything for him gladly — except to 



266 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

go away from him. The Catholic Church has enrolled 
the name of this woman among the great saints, because 
she loved Jesus so much. 

As Mary Magdalene watched the Master at table and 
realised that he was sad, she was filled with a great desire 
to do something to make him happy. But what could she 
do? He seemed to want nothing for himself except love, 
and that all these people gave him in abundance. But 
Mary knew that Jesus enjoyed perfumes, as all Orientals 
do. And you must never forget in reading and thinking 
about Jesus that he was an Oriental — that is, a dweller in 
the East. You will never understand him if you judge 
him by the standards of the colder West. His heart was 
on fire with love for all the world, and that is why the 
world has worshipped him for nineteen hundred years. 
The most loving and affectionate person you ever knew 
would seem cold-hearted if compared with Jesus. It 
takes a great love for the world to win an answering love 
from the world for nineteen hundred years. 

Mary Magdalene remembered that Jesus enjoyed per- 
fumes. Perhaps the subtle influence of sweet odours 
would make him forget his sadness. Now Mary was not 
a poor woman, as were so many of the followers of Jesus. 
She had beautiful jewels and much gold, and among her 
possessions was an alabaster box filled with the very pre- 
cious ointment of spikenard, a sweet and lasting per- 
fume. Desiring to make Jesus happy, as well as to do 
him some special honour before all these strangers, Mary 
brought the alabaster box into the room where Jesus sat 
at supper. Then she went and stood behind the Master, 
and breaking the alabaster box, she poured all the pre- 
cious ointment upon his head. 

Immediately the whole room was filled with a de- 
lightful fragrance. It seemed as if the winds from far- 



THE ALABASTER BOX 267 

away had blown across the flower-gardens of the world, 
bringing their entrancing odours into this room. 

And Jesus smiled. He who loved humanity so much 
was always touched by the evidence of love in others, and 
he read the purpose in Mary's heart. He knew that she 
had brought the sweetest and most precious thing she had, 
to make him forget his sadness. Even a little of this 
ointment would have perfumed the room, but she had 
lavished the whole upon his head. It was the way of 
those who loved Jesus to give all to him, and not a little, 
because he had given himself utterly to them and to the 
world. 

Then Mary, wishing to do even more for Jesus, took 
some of the ointment in her hands, and kneeling beside 
the Master, she anointed his feet with the ointment, and 
wiped them with her long and beautiful hair. In those 
days men took off their shoes before they sat at table, 
and the feet of Jesus were bare. And as Mary, kneeling 
there beside him, gently wiped his anointed feet with 
her long hair, the tears streamed from her eyes. For she 
had been a great sinner before the Master taught her a 
purer way of living, and her repentance was deep and 
never-ending. Each day she repented anew, and always 
with tears. The world remembers Mary Magdalene as the 
woman who weeps eternally for her sins, and in many 
Roman Catholic churches there are altars erected to her, 
where repentant women go to weep and to ask God to for- 
give them for her sake. 

As she knelt there at the feet of Jesus, wiping them 
with her hair, it seemed to him that the fragrance of the 
ointment of spikenard was the perfume of her love for 
him and for God. 

But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who was already 
unfaithful to Jesus in his heart, could not see the beautv 



268 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

in Mary's action. He thought only of the money value 
of the ointment. In the beginning of Judas 's disciple- 
ship, Jesus, knowing that he was not quite honest, had 
given him their common purse to carry, as a proof of his 
trust. But Judas had come to value more the purse and its 
contents than he valued the delicate proof of confidence 
in him which Jesus had made. And now, when he saw 
Mary lavishing this precious perfume for love's sake, he 
was angry. And he cried, before all the assembled com- 
pany: 

' ' Why was not this ointment sold for much money, 
and given to the poor?" And he murmured against 
Mary. 

Strange to say, Judas, who now assumed to take such 
an interest in the poor, was among all the disciples the 
one who really cared least for them. He had even 
objected, on certain occasions in the past, to opening the 
purse which he carried, when he was asked to distribute 
alms to those who were in need. 

The Master looked at Judas, who sat there at the 
table with an angry frown on his dark face. The glance 
of Jesus was gentle, even pitiful ; for he understood the 
faults of Judas better than any of the others understood 
them — better even than John, who disliked him. For 
Jesus was one of those rare beings who can love those who 
are not lovable. He could see the reflection of God's 
face even in a broken and distorting mirror. 

And he now said to Judas : 

"Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath 
wrought a good work upon me. ' ' By this he probably 
meant that the sweet odour of the ointment, with the sight 
of Mary's devotion as she knelt beside him wiping his feet 
with her long hair, had lightened the trouble which had 
weighed upon his spirit. And he said: 



THE ALABASTER BOX 269 

"For ye have the poor with you always, and when- 
ever ye will ye may do them good; but me ye have not 
always. 

' ' She hath done what she could : she is come aforetime 
to anoint my body to the burying. ' ' For ever in the 
thought of Jesus now was the knowledge that he was soon 
to die. 

He looked from the disciples to Mary, still kneeling 
there at his feet, and a deep feeling for her devotion 
surged up in his tender heart. He realised that the ages 
to come would understand her and love her, for all that 
she had suffered through repentance and through love for 
her master. And he said to his disciples : 

"Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall 
be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she 
hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. ' ' 

And Judas was ashamed, though he was still angry. 
In some selfish and bitter hearts, to be made ashamed is 
to be made treacherous, and it was so with Judas. For 
the first time since he had walked with Jesus, he felt 
resentment against him. Sometimes in the past the Mas- 
ter had reproved him, but never publicly like this; for 
never before had Judas so far lost his self-control. 

He arose and stalked out of the room. As he passed 
the seat of Jesus, he bruised his naked foot on a fragment 
of the broken alabaster box which was lying on the floor. 

Mary still knelt at the feet of the Master, wiping them 
with her long hair. And the fragrance of the spikenard 
filled the room, bringing to the hearts of all present a 
keener realisation of their love for Jesus. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 

The next morning after the supper at Bethany, Jesus 
told his disciples that the time was come for them to 
enter Jerusalem, that the Son of man might be glorified. 
Of course they had been often before in the Holy City, 
but every one felt that this time was different. On that 
Sunday morning of spring the heart of every man beat 
high with excitement. They all thought that something 
of tremendous importance was about to happen. Jesus 
knew what was coming, but his disciples did not. To 
them, it seemed that the kingdom of heaven was imme- 
diately to appear. Knowing that Jesus was the Son of 
God, they believed that he had only to declare himself with 
special power, and that the whole world would be forced 
to acknowledge him. 

Even Judas, who had been angry the night before 
when Jesus had reproved him for his harshness to Mary 
Magdalene, after she broke the alabaster box of precious 
ointment to anoint the head and feet of Jesus, even 
Judas was full of enthusiasm this morning. At last, he 
thought, the Master was going to declare himself, and 
make everybody fall at his feet. He forgot, for the mo- 
ment, all that Jesus had said about the enmity of the 
priests and Pharisees. Judas had wondered a long time 
what Jesus was waiting for. He still believed in the 
Master, and, in his sullen and selfish way, he loved him. 
He even forgot his anger of the night before in the ex- 
271 



272 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

citement of preparation for the short journey to Jeru- 
salem. 

They started. With Jesus were his twelve disciples, 
his friends from Bethany, and many others. It was a 
large company which came down the hill, with the Mas- 
ter walking at their head. When they were near to the 
village of Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus 
stopped. He stood still a moment, thinking. Then he 
said to two of his disciples : 

' ' Go into the village over against you, and straightway 
ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, 
and bring them unto me. 

' ' And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, 
The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will 
send them. ' ' 

The men went away, as Jesus had told them. But 
they did not know of what he had been thinking, when 
he stopped suddenly a moment before. For he had 
remembered a verse from the ancient prophesies relating 
to the Messiah, which said: "Tell ye the daughter of 
Sion, Behold, the King cometh unto thee, meek, and 
sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." It 
had seemed to Jesus that this sudden memory was a com- 
mand from God to fulfil the prophesies, in order that 
men afterward might believe. 

The two disciples went into the village of Bethphage. 
And there they found, at a place where two roads met, a 
mother donkey with a young colt — just as the Master had 
said they would. And they loosed them, and started to 
come away. 

Then certain men who stood near asked them what 
they were doing, and why they were taking the donkey 
and the colt. 

The men answered, as Jesus had commanded: "The 



ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 273 

Lord hath need of them. ' ' And the men made no further 
objection. 

Jesus, as he stood there, saw them coming: the two 
men, the long-eared donkey with the soft and gentle eyes, 
and running beside her the little colt, so young that it 
was still rather unsteady on its thin legs. 

Some of the disciples laid their cloaks across the 
donkey, to make a seat of honour for the Master, and 
Jesus sat upon the donkey's back. And as he started 
slowly, the little colt following close behind, other disci- 
ples spread their cloaks before him in the way, so that he 
might ride into the city on a carpet made of the garments 
of his followers. 

And others of the men ran on before, and cut down 
branches of the palm-trees, spreading them also in his 
path, that the feet of his donkey might tread on green- 
ness. It was a beautiful sight, a sight which had never 
before been seen in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It 
was a spontaneous demonstration of love and enthusiasm, 
and as the disciples waved palm branches before their 
Master, they cried with joyous voices : 

"Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest. ' ' 

As they came a little nearer to the city, they were met 
by other men they knew, Galileans from the north, from 
Capernaum, and the other cities by the lake, men who 
had loved Jesus for a long time, and who had come down 
to Jerusalem this week for the feast of the Passover. 
They had heard the night before that Jesus was in Beth- 
any, and had come out to meet him, also waving green 
branches and crying: 

"Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest." 

And as those who were with Jesus saw these others 



274 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

coming, and heard their welcoming voices, they cried 
themselves with redoubled fervour, so that from before 
him and behind him, and from every side, came a chorus 
of glad voices, all saying: 

"Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest. ' ' 

And Jesus forgot the sadness which had oppressed 
him the night before, and for many days before that. 
He felt as if he were really coming into the kingdom of 
God, with all his loved ones with him. He now thought 
of Jerusalem as the Holy City — not as the stronghold of 
priests and Pharisees. At that moment it was to him 
the Jerusalem of the prophets, the city that all hearts 
yearned toward, Jerusalem the golden. 

But going a little farther on, still with his friends be- 
fore and behind him crying Hosannas, Jesus turned a 
bend of the road and came out upon the side of the 
Mount of Olives. Here he saw spread out before him the 
city of Jerusalem itself, the city of houses and of the 
great Temple, with its splendid sweep of terraces and its 
glittering metal-covered roof. This was the real Jeru- 
salem of the priests and Pharisees, of wrangling scribes 
and self-righteous doctors, the Jerusalem which cared 
only for the letter of the Jewish law, and cared nothing 
for the love which Jesus brought it. The Jerusalem of 
his dreams was not this material city, but a city builded 
in the heart — the new Jerusalem. 

He remembered how as a boy he had come here with 
his parents, making the long journey from Galilee on 
foot, one of a happy company of fellow-pilgrims, neigh- 
bours and friends, camping at night by the wayside. 
He remembered how wonderful the Temple had seemed to 
him then, at the age of twelve; how, on entering the sanc- 
tuary, he had thought that he was going into God's own 



ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 275 

house. Alas! he had since learned that those who acted 
as the guardians of the house of God had never heard the 
voice which issued from between the cherubim in the 
Holy of Holies. 

And now, as he rested there upon the Mount of Olives, 
and looked down at the cold and glittering Temple, he 
wept over it, and the words which he was to utter at 
another time were in his heart: 

"0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the 
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children together, even 
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not. ' ' 

And still weeping, Jesus said to the city below him : 

"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy 
day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now 
they are hid from thine eyes. 

' ' For the days shall come unto thee, that thine ene- 
mies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee 
round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee 
even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; and 
they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; be- 
cause thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. ' ' 

Many years were to pass before this prophesy was 
verified; but it was verified. For in the time to come the 
enemies of the Jews did all that Jesus said. 

Having wept over the city, Jesus moved toward it, 
with his disciples before and behind him rejoicing and 
praising God with a loud voice for all the mighty works 
which they had seen, and saying : 

' ' Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the 
Lord ; peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. ' ' 

And now, as they drew nearer to Jerusalem, many 
Pharisees joined the multitude, and these were angry to 



276 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

see the palm branches strewn before Jesus, as if he were 
a king, and to hear the joyful shouts of his friends pro- 
claiming him as the Messiah. And the Pharisees pushed 
their way through the crowd until they came to the place 
where Jesus rode slowly on the donkey, with the tender 
little colt beside him. And they said angrily to Jesus : 

' ' Rebuke thy disciples. ' ' 

But Jesus, knowing that the time was come for him 
to declare himself in the unbelieving city, answered the 
Pharisees : 

"I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the 
stones would immediately cry out. ' ' 

The Pharisees were nearly distracted. They said to 
one another: 

"Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the 
world is gone after him ! ' ' 

And it seemed, as Jesus came into the city of Jeru- 
salem, that the world had indeed gone after him, as the 
Pharisees said; for the fame of his miracle in raising 
Lazarus from the dead had grown until every man and 
woman in the city desired to see the Nazarene who could 
work such wonders. Even those who were not willing to 
commit themselves by strewing palm branches in his 
way, wanted at least to look upon him. And besides the 
friends and Galileans who had come with him along the 
Mount of Olives road, there were other Galileans and 
friends who met him at the entrance of the city, so that 
his progress toward the Temple was the progress of a 
conqueror. 

And the chief priests and Pharisees, looking on at his 
triumph, wagged their old bearded heads, as much as to 
say: 

"Shout, fools, and strew palm branches! But no 
man who says that he is the Messiah of the Jews shall 



ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 277 

live in our day. No man shall live who would destroy 
our power, and place himself in the seat of Moses. ' ' 

And still the joyous disciples went on crying: 

' ' Hosanna : Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord : Hosanna in the highest. ' ' 

Men who had never seen Jesus before, as they saw and 
heard this strange procession, asked excitedly : ' ' Who is 
this?" 

And from every side came the answer: 

"This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee." 

And the Pharisees could find no one to listen to them 
that day, when they tried to expound the letter of the 
Jewish law, saying the same old things which had been 
uttered from generation to generation, and which had lost 
their meaning from overuse. And with every moment, as 
the crowd round Jesus grew larger, the Pharisees and 
priests became angrier and more troubled. And several 
of them now found courage to repeat what Caiaphas alone 
had said a short time before : 

"It is expedient for us that one man should die for 
the people, and that the whole nation perish not. ' ' 

And they further reasoned as to how they could put 
Lazarus out of the way; for it seemed to them that his 
being with Jesus that day increased the crowd round the 
Master from Galilee. And there were also with Jesus those 
men from Bethany and Jerusalem who had witnessed the 
raising of Lazarus, the men who had stood by the open 
door of the tomb, who had heard the Master call with a 
loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" and who had seen 
the dead man walk out of the tomb into the sunlight, 
with the look of bewilderment on his face. These men 
were loud in their assertions of the truth of the miracle 
which they had witnessed. 

Jesus came up to the great Temple, which crowned 



278 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the city of Jerusalem. He saw the porches, with their 
rows of pillars and marble pavements, familiar to him 
since boyhood. He went through the court of the Gen- 
tiles, beyond which only Jews could pass. He saw again 
the great bronze gates, so heavy that it took twenty por- 
ters to open and close them. 

In this Temple was the Holy Place, where stood the 
altar of incense, the tables of shewbread and the golden 
candlesticks. You have read in a former story that in 
the innermost part of the Temple was the Holy of Holies, 
which was entered only once a year, where stood the Ark 
of the Covenant, the most sacred of all things to the 
Jews. You remember that this Ark was a chest of acacia 
wood, covered with gold, and that over the lid of the 
chest, which was called "the mercy seat," two angels 
extended their wings ; that in the Ark were kept the two 
tablets of stone on which were written the Ten Command- 
ments which God had delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. 
Between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies there 
was a veil, called the Veil of the Temple, too sacred for 
any one to touch except the High Priest. You must 
remember this veil because, during the week which was 
to follow, something very remarkable was to happen to it, 
something which should be told for generation after gen- 
eration until the end of the world. 

As Jesus stood there in the Temple, again he heard, 
as in boyhood, the musicians singing the Psalms which 
predict the coming of the Messiah : 

"Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 

"Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy 
possession. 

" I will make thy name to be remembered in all genera- 
tions; therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever. 



ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 279 

"Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon 
stretch out her hands unto God. 

"I will praise the name of God with a song, and will 
magnify him tvith thanksgiving. 

"He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: 
as shoivers that water the earth. 

"His name shall endure forever: his name shall be 
continued as long as the sun: and men shall he Messed in 
him; all nations shall call him Messed. 

"The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the taber- 
nacle of the righteous. 

"The stone which the builders refused is become the 
head stone of the corner.''' 1 

Can we understand the feelings of Jesus as he stood 
there in the great Temple at Jerusalem, listening to the 
singing of the Psalms which predicted his own coming, he 
knowing at the same time that the High Priest, who alone 
was considered holy enough to touch the Veil of the Tem- 
ple, was planning his death? Of all the dramatic stories 
of the world, and they are many, there is none so dra- 
matic as this; there is no other story in which the essen- 
tial elements of tragedy are so blended with the elements 
of pure beauty. There is no other story wherein the 
hatred which is death, and the love which is life, stand 
so close together. 

Those solemn priests of the Temple, who claimed to 
be near to God, were planning to kill Jesus; and he, who 
loved all the world more intensely than a mother loves 
her children, stood there in the Temple and listened to 
the singing of the Psalms which predicted the coming of 
the One whom the Temple itself would destroy. 

And the disciples of Jesus? The Master had said that 
the time was come when the Son of man should be 



280 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

glorified, and his friends were expecting a sign to appear 
in the heavens — a physical sign, which should announce 
that the old law was passed away, and that the kingdom 
of God was to begin. All the time they were in the Tem- 
ple enclosure with Jesus they were looking for this sign. 
Would it be a blazing light in the heavens, a star in the 
daytime, a standing still of the sun? We must remem- 
ber that in those days the science of astronomy was not 
known as it is now, and we must also remember that the 
disciples of Jesus were simple men, with much faith and 
love, but little book learning. And though they had 
been with the Master nearly all the time for two or three 
years, they had not grasped the simple fact — so clear to 
Jesus — that the kingdom of heaven was to be found in 
the hearts of men, and not in the courts of the great 
Temple. 

As the hours went by that first day at Jerusalem, and 
nothing happened except the healing of a few sick per- 
sons, which they saw almost every day, the disciples be- 
gan to wonder. Was not the Son of man to be glorified, 
after all? They had seen Jesus perform so many mira- 
cles ! They felt that the glorification of the Son of man 
must be something different to anything they had known 
before — something more extraordinary than the raising 
of a dead man or the turning of water into wine. 

Even the three men who had seen Jesus transfigured 
on the mountain, where there was no one but themselves 
to behold the sight, wanted something like that to hap- 
pen in this unbelieving and cynical Jerusalem. They 
were hurt at being called "foolish Galileans" by the 
haughty Pharisees and scribes. In Jerusalem the visitors 
'from Galilee were held in rather low esteem. They did 
not speak their language exactly as it was spoken in 
Judaea, for the Galileans had a characteristic dialect, cer- 



ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 281 

tain peculiarities of which may be likened to the dropping 
of the h among the lower classes in London. Even their 
enthusiasm in regard to the Temple was laughed at by 
those who lived always in the Holy City. 

Now, they thought, if Jesus would only perform some 
great miracle, right there in the Temple, the haughty 
dwellers in Jerusalem would be obliged to take back the 
sneering things which they had said. The disciples remem- 
bered that, on a former visit to the Holy City, Jesus had 
declared : ' ' Destroy this temple, and I will rebuild it in 
three days." They did not know that he referred to 
the temple of his own body; that he meant that when his 
body should be destroyed, he would arise from the dead 
in three days. No, they were inclined to take all the 
beautiful and figurative sayings of Jesus in a literal 
sense. Jesus was a great poet, as well as a great prophet; 
but there are always many persons, even true-hearted ones, 
who do not understand poetry. Some of the most beau- 
tiful poetry is not written in rhyme, and there is no 
greater poetry in the world than many of the sayings of 
Jesus. Every real poet knows this. 

As the evening shadows drew down, the crowd around 
the Temple grew smaller; in little groups, and one by 
one, the people slipped away. And Jesus said to his 
disciples that they would return to Bethany. He started, 
and the disciples followed him in silence. After all the 
triumph of his entry into the city, they thought, after the 
palm branches strewed in his path, and the shouts of his 
followers, ' ' Hosanna in the highest, ' ' he was going back 
to Bethany without being glorified! Perhaps it would 
happen on the morrow; perhaps he had some reason for 
waiting; perhaps it would be better for him to be glori- 
fied on the morrow, one day nearer to the great feast of 
the Passover. So they told themselves and each other. 



282 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

We should not be too much surprised because the dis- 
ciples of Jesus often misunderstood him. Jesus has been 
misunderstood by many noble souls for nearly two thou- 
sand years. In the Middle Ages, and even in later times, 
men have been tortured and burned at the stake by other 
men who believed themselves to be followers of the Mas- 
ter. It is hard for smaller men to understand a man so 
great as Jesus. His sympathy was so deep that he even 
found excuses for sinners; that is, he always tried to 
understand why people did wrong, in order that he might 
understand them, and know how to show them a better 
way. It is always easier for us to blame others than it is 
to understand them. Jesus even loved Judas, and num- 
bered him among his twelve disciples; though he must 
have known that Judas would betray him. 

And as they walked slowly back to Bethany that even- 
ing, after the day in Jerusalem, Jesus must have known 
what was passing in the mind of Judas, how Judas was 
thinking that if his Master was not going to be glorified, 
in the brilliant way he had supposed, he might not really 
be the Messiah, after all. For that thought was now in 
the mind of the unhappy man from Kerioth. 

Back to Bethany! How the beautiful, peaceful place 
appealed to Jesus, after the noise and dust and wrangling 
of Jerusalem! Here was the quiet home of Mary and 
Martha, where there were no disputes. Here he could be 
himself, the gentle leader of friends who loved him, as he 
had been during those happy months when he had walked 
the blossoming ways of Galilee. The sternness which he 
was obliged to use with the hypocritical scribes and 
Pharisees of Jerusalem.was not natural to Jesus. Wrang- 
ling and argument were not natural to him. He wanted 
to teach by love. Jesus never disputed about God. He 
only asked his friends to love him and to believe in God. 



ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 283 

We can see the smile which lighted his face as he 
caught sight of the house at Bethany through the green 
trees. To-morrow he would have to go back to Jerusalem; 
but to-night he could be with those who loved him. He 
did not talk much that evening, but sat in silence with 
his dear ones, smiling at them now and then, or laying 
his hand upon the head of the gentle Mary as she sat at 
his feet. And then he went to rest. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 

Monday morning, on the way back to Jerusalem, Jesus 
did something which astonished his disciples. In the 
past they had seen him bring dead things to life, but this 
was the first time they had ever seen him destroy any- 
thing. 

As they walked toward the city, it was still early in 
the morning, and Jesus was hungry. Seeing a fig-tree in 
the distance bearing leaves, he went toward it, hoping to 
find fruit; but when he came to the tree he found nothing 
but leaves. Jesus wished to give his disciples a lesson 
in the power of will, in the power of belief in one's own 
ability to do the seemingly impossible, and he said to 
the fig-tree: 

' ' Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. ' ' 

That evening, when they passed the fig-tree again on 
their return to Bethany, the disciples could hardly believe 
their eyes ; for the tree, which had been green and covered 
with leaves in the morning, was now yellow and shrivelled, 
as if a scorching fire had touched it. And they expressed 
their amazement to Jesus, saying: 

' ' How soon is the fig-tree withered away ! ' ' 

And Jesus answered them, with the look of power 
still on his face, the look with which he had withered the 
unfruitful tree : 

' ' Have faith in God. 

' ' For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say 
285 



286 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast 
into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall 
believe that those things which he saith shall come to 
pass ; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 

' ' Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye de- 
sire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
shall have them." 

Then the expression of his face softened, and a tender 
light came into his eyes, as he continued: 

"And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught 
against any: that your Father also which is in heaven 
may forgive you your trespasses. 

"But if ye do not forgive, neither will your father 
which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." 

Jesus meant by these words that in order to command 
the powers of Nature, by the strength of one's belief in 
God and in oneself, as he had commanded those powers 
in withering the fig-tree, it was necessary to put away all 
personal feeling, all resentment against others. For per- 
sonal resentment is weakness, and only the strong, who 
are above personal weakness and resentment, can com- 
mand the powers of Nature. 

Now Jesus, in starting for Jerusalem that morning, 
had determined to do a very important thing when he 
should reach the Temple, a thing requiring great strength 
of his will against the wills of a large number of other 
persons. And perhaps his action in withering the barren 
fig-tree, besides being a lesson for the disciples, was also 
an exercise to strengthen and steady his own will. 

For Jesus was determined to cleanse the Temple at 
Jerusalem from some of the impure and wicked things 
which he had seen there the day before. 

The Jews were always talking about purity. Accord- 
ing to the old law of Moses, a man who had touched any 



THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 287 

dead animal or bird whose flesh he was not allowed to eat 
— such as a camel, a pig, a cat, an eagle, an owl, a swan, 
a mouse — should be considered unclean until the even- 
ing, and could not come into the sanctuary. And should 
any of those dead animals or fowls fall into an earthen 
dish, the dish must be immediately broken. And if the 
dead body of any of those animals or birds should touch 
an oven, or a range for holding pots, it also should be 
immediately broken. And, according to the law of 
Moses, no man should ever eat without washing his 
hands, no matter where he was or how hungry he was, or 
whether there was any water near. 

Now these laws, which were only a few among a great 
many laws of the Jews regarding purity, were all good in 
themselves; but the Jews carried the observance of them 
to an extreme of fussiness which often seemed foolish to 
Jesus. One day when the Master had eaten something 
without washing his hands, and the Pharisees had re- 
proved him, Jesus had answered that it was not that 
which went into a man's mouth which made him unclean; 
but that which came out of it — meaning the words which 
the man spoke. 

At another time the Pharisees had complained of Jesus 
for curing a sick man on the Sabbath. Because the law 
of Moses said that a man must not work on the Sabbath, 
the Pharisees seemed to think that one should not do even 
a kind action on that day. I have told you how these 
men cared only for the letter of the law, and cared noth- 
ing for its spirit. If a man obeyed the rules laid down 
by Moses, even though he might have hatred in his heart 
and all uncharitableness, still he could enter the sanctu- 
ary. One reason why the Pharisees hated Jesus and 
wanted to kill him, was because he thought that the love 
and goodness in a man's heart were more important in 



288 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the sight of God than any external thing. Jesus liked 
people to be clean, as we all do; but he also liked them 
to be kind at the same time, and that was something 
which did not interest the Pharisees. 

Now when Jesus came to Jerusalem this last time, he 
saw many things in and around the Temple which he did 
not like. If you have read the Old Testament, you know 
that the Jews made bloody sacrifices to God; that they 
believed that by killing lambs and bullocks, and by smear- 
ing their blood upon the altars in a certain way, a man 
could please God. The old Mosaic law said, for example, 
that if a man had committed a sin through ignorance, he 
should bring a young bullock unto the tabernacle of the 
Lord for a sin offering, and the following were some of 
the bloody things which he should do : 

"He shall bring the bullock unto the door of the 
tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; and shall 
lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bul- 
lock before the Lord. 

"And the priest that is anointed shall take of the 
bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation : 

"And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and 
sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before 
the veil of the sanctuary. 

"And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the 
horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which 
is in the tabernacle of the congregation ; and shall pour all 
the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the 
burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of 
the congregation. 

' ' And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock 
for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, 
and all the fat that is upon the inwards, 






THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 289 

"And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, 
which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with 
the kidneys, it shall he take away, 

"As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice 
of peace offerings : and the priest shall burn them upon 
the altar of the burnt offering. ' ' 

It seemed to Jesus, as it seems to us, that all these 
details about blood and fat and liver and kidneys, had 
no direct connection with sin or the forgiveness of sin. 

In that same book of laws, which is called Leviticus, 
were other rules regarding the sacrifices to be offered for 
sins of many kinds. The Jews washed out their sins 
with the blood of lambs and goats. And always in their 
minds was the fear of uncleanness to their bodies. Now 
Jesus did not deny that all these rules for bodily cleanli- 
ness were good ; but he wanted them to make their hearts 
clean also. And he wanted them to keep clean the Tem- 
ple at Jerusalem, which was called the House of God. 

The Temple, which was the centre of Jewish life, had 
come to be like a marketplace, and its courts were full of 
men who bought and sold. This seemed to Jesus to be 
sacrilege, the profanation of a holy place, and he determined 
to make an end of it. 

The morning on which he had withered the barren fig- 
tree, Jesus came again to the Temple with his disciples. 
During the week of the Passover, Jerusalem was full of 
strangers. The merchants and peddlers who drove a 
thriving business in the court of the Temple were already 
there, calling out the things which they had for sale or 
exchange. In one corner were men selling beasts for the 
bloody sacrifices, in another corner were men selling 
doves, in other places were the money-changers, talking 
in loud voices; and here and there were groups of men, 
Pharisees and others, still arguing and quarrelling over 



290 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

unimportant points of the law. If one man said that a 
verse of the scripture had a certain meaning, his neighbour 
would declare that it meant quite another thing, and 
then the two would argue and wrangle, and all the people 
who stood by would wrangle, gesticulating with their arms 
and shouting, until a person unaccustomed to their ways 
would have thought that they were all on the point of 
blows. And through this din of argument were constantly 
heard the shouts of the vendors of beasts and doves, and 
the shrill voices of the money-changers. 

Into this noisy court came Jesus with his disciples. 
He stood there for awhile in silence, listening and watch- 
ing. To him the very thought of killing animals and 
smearing their blood upon the altars of the Temple was 
repugnant. As he stood there, with his brows sternly 
knit, he thought of those words which Isaiah the prophet 
had written: 

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices 
unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings 
of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in 
the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When 
ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at 
your hand, to tread my courts?" 

Surely, indeed, thought Jesus, God his Father was 
full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed 
beasts ! They smeared His house with blood ; they set up 
shops within the sacred enclosure; they made of the very 
sacrifices which they offered to Him a source of profit; 
and instead of serving Him in humility and truth, they 
wrangled, wrangled, wrangled about the sayings of the 
prophets. Some even used the court of the Temple as a 
short-cut, when they wanted to go somewhere on the other 
side, carrying bundles and vessels of various sorts through 
the Temple court, as if it had been a public square. 



THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 291 

Even in their prayers, the Jews turned to see if other peo- 
ple were looking at them and admiring their piety. 

And the priests ! At Jerusalem the priests themselves 
were cold and formal. They smiled superior smiles at 
the pilgrims who came from afar, and who seemed really 
to feel the sacredness of the Temple. To the priests, the 
Temple and its ceremonies were a means of livelihood. 
To Jesus, the worship of God meant also the love of one's 
fellowmen; but what love for their fellowmen had those 
priests, Pharisees, and scribes? 

But perhaps there was nothing about the old Jewish 
religion which troubled Jesus more than that constant 
killing of gentle dumb animals as sacrifices to God. 
Jesus loved animals. He knew that God could not be 
pleased to have them killed, and to have their innocent 
blood smeared upon the altars of His house. 

Standing there that morning with his disciples, in the 
midst of the uproar in the court of the Temple, Jesus 
came fully to realise that between the pure religion which 
he was sent by his Father to preach, and this old Jewish 
religion of blood and formality, there could be no union, 
no sympathy. Some of the scribes had already discussed 
the possibility that the Messiah, when he came, would 
bring a new law; but now that the Messiah was really 
come, they would accept neither him nor his law. 
And that new law — what was it? Simply this: "Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ' ' The religion taught 
by Jesus was so simple that even a child could compre- 
hend it; and yet it seemed beyond the comprehension of 
these learned priests and scribes. 

We can see Jesus standing there in the noisy court of 
the Temple, tall and quiet, with a look of determination 
on his face. Heretofore he had taught by gentleness 
alone; but the Jews could not understand gentleness. It 



292 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

seemed to them to be but a form of weakness. Very- 
well. He would teach them to-day in a language which 
they could understand. 

There was lying on the ground beside Jesus a whip 
made of small cords, which had probably been used to 
drive into the Temple enclosure the unoffending dumb 
beasts which were to be sold for sacrifice. The disciples 
saw Jesus stoop and pick up this whip. Then they saw 
their Master, usually so quiet and gentle, go swiftly 
toward that part of the court where stood those that sold 
animals and those that sold doves. They saw him raise 
the whip in his hand, the many-corded lash circled in 
the air and then came down upon the back of the nearest 
trader in beasts, who capered with pain. They saw him 
raise the whip again, and again it came down upon the 
back of a man who sold doves. Again and again he 
raised the whip, and each time it descended upon some 
one who was desecrating the holy place, while his clear, 
strong voice rose above the noises of the court, saying : 

"It is written, my house shall be called the house of 
prayer; and ye have made it a den of thieves. " 

And he drove them out of the Temple court before 
the lash of his whip — all them that sold beasts and all 
them that sold doves, while the disciples looked on with 
admiration and the Jews looked on with astonishment. 

Then Jesus came back into the court, and he went to 
the tables of the money-changers, who a moment before 
had been calling out their unholy trade, and he overthrew 
their tables so that the coins rolled on the pavement; then 
at the end of his whiplash he drove the money-changers 
also out of the Temple, saying to them, as he had said to 
the others : 

"It is written, my house shall be called the house of 
prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." 



THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 293 

Then he stood at the entrance and drove back those 
who came there with burdens on their shoulders or in 
their hands, those who would have carried their vessels 
of water through the court of the Temple as if it had 
been a public square, merely to shorten their road. 

There were children standing by, and when they saw 
Jesus they raised their fresh young voices, saying, as 
they had heard the disciples say : 

"Hosanna to the son of David!" 

When the chief priests and the scribes saw what the 
Master had done, and when they heard the children cry- 
ing, "Hosanna to the son of David," which was a phrase 
they had for the expected Messiah, they were enraged; 
and they said harshly to Jesus : 

"Hearest thou what these say?" 

They wanted Jesus to reprove the children for daring 
to call him the Son of David. But the Master only looked 
at them steadily and answered : 

"Yea, have ye not read, Out of the mouths of babes 
and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" 

And the priests and scribes did not know what to 
respond. They had seen how the pilgrims from other 
cities, the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the 
Passover and whom the haughty priests regarded as com- 
mon people, looked at Jesus with love, and freely ex- 
pressed their admiration of his action in driving the ven- 
dors and money-changers out of the Temple. For many 
of the pilgrims had also felt that the Temple in the Holy 
City was not a proper place for buying and selling; but 
they had not dared to say so until the Master set them an 
example by his courage. 

The priests wanted now more than ever to kill Jesus, 
for they saw that if they left him undisturbed he would 
gain a greater and greater influence over the people. 



294 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

And if the pure religion of Jesus gained the people, what 
would become of the priests with their fat livings and 
their high position in Jerusalem? 

The Master, passing again into the Temple, was sur- 
rounded by many poor people and many lame and blind, 
who called on him to help them. And as he healed these 
of their infirmities, the children cried again and again 
with their fresh, pure voices : 

' ' Hosanna to the son of David ! Hosanna to the son 
of David!" 

The priests and scribes slunk away, for they could not 
endure to hear the praises of the children, nor the thanks 
of the lame and blind whom Jesus had healed. And the 
Master was left alone with those who loved him, in the 
Temple court which he had cleansed of impurity. 

When the night shadows drew down, he returned 
again to Bethany, on the hill beyond the city, where lived 
Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and many others who now 
believed on him. 



CHAPTEE XXIX 

THE MASTER AND THE QUESTIONERS 

The next day after Jesus had purified the Templej 
by casting out of it the money-changers and scourging 
those who sold animals and doves there for the sacrifices, 
he stayed in Jerusalem all day long with his disciples, 
teaching the people and answering the questions of the 
scribes and Pharisees. For though the Jews did not be- 
lieve on him, they liked to ask him questions. Their 
reasons for questioning him were mixed. They prided 
themselves upon their subtlety in argument, they liked 
the sound of their own voices, they hoped to entangle 
him in his talk, and they had a great curiosity as to what 
he would say. They had no real desire to learn from 
him, because they were themselves too fond of teach- 
ing. 

But we must not despise the Jews as a race because 
the Jews in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus were vain and 
insincere. Jesus himself was a Jew — this we must never 
forget; and the race from which he sprang was a great 
race, with a long history and 'a sound morality. The 
people who had followed Jesus in Galilee were Jews, 
Mary and Martha were Jews, and so were the twelve dis- 
ciples. But the priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem were 
very different to the gentle and sympathetic people who 
loved Jesus. It was against the evils of Judaism, not 
against the Jewish people, that the Master preached. 
295 



296 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

That morning, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, 
the chief priests and elders came to him, and said: 

"By what authority doest thou these things? and who 
gave thee this authority?" 

Jesus answered their question by asking another. He 
said: 

"I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I 
in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these 
things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from 
heaven, or of men?" 

The priests and elders counselled together, not know- 
ing what answer to make; for, if they said that the bap- 
tism of John was from heaven, Jesus would ask them why 
then they had not believed John when he declared that 
Jesus was the son of God. And if they answered that 
the baptism of John was of men — that is, that it was not 
inspired by God — the people would be angry with them, 
because the people believed that John was a prophet. 
The priests and elders were afraid of offending the people. 
So, after counselling together, they answered the ques- 
tion of Jesus by saying: 

"We cannot tell." 

"Neither tell I you by what authority I do these 
things, ' ' replied Jesus. 

Then he told them parables, stories with an inner 
meaning, which could bring home to their minds the 
things he wanted to say to them about their wickedness 
and unbelief. Among these parables was the following, 
which illustrated their refusal to accept him whom God 
had sent. Jesus said: 

"There was a certain householder, which planted a 
vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a 
winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to hus- 
bandmen, and went into a far country : 



MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 297 

' ' And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent 
his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive 
the fruits of it. 

"And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat 
one, and killed another, and stoned another. 

"Again, he sent other servants more than the first: 
and they did unto them likewise. 

"But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, 
They will reverence my son. 

"But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said 
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, 
and let us seize on his inheritance. 

"And they caught him, and cast him out of the vine- 
yard, and slew him. 

"When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, 
what will he do unto those husbandmen?" 

And the priests and elders, not understanding at first 
the hidden meaning in the parable, answered that the 
householder would miserably destroy those wicked men, 
and would let his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which 
should render him the fruits in their season. Thus they 
condemned themselves out of their own mouths, unwit- 
tingly. 

And Jesus said to them : 

"Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which 
the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the 
corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in 
our eyes? 

' ' Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall 
be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth 
the fruits thereof. 

"And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be 
broken : but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him 
to powder. ' ' 



298 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

When the priests and elders realised that Jesus meant 
that they were the wicked husbandmen of the parable, they 
were angrier than ever at him. They would have seized 
him then and there, and would have killed him, had 
they not been afraid of the multitude which stood listen- 
ing to his words. For the common people took Jesus for 
a great prophet, even many of those who did not under- 
stand that he was really the Messiah. 

And the Master, seeing the anger in the faces of the 
priests and elders, told them another parable, which illus- 
trated still further their blindness and unbelief. He 
said: 

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, 
which made a marriage for his son, 

"And sent forth his servants to call them that were 
bidden to the wedding : and they would not come. 

"Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell 
them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my din- 
ner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things 
are ready: come unto the marriage. 

"But they made light of it, and went their ways, one 
to his farm, another to his merchandise : 

"And the remnant took his servants, and entreated 
them spitefully, and slew them. 

' ' But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth : and 
he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, 
and burned up their city. 

"Then said he to his servants, The wedding is ready, 
but they which were bidden were not worthy. 

"Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as 
ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 

"So those servants went out into the highways, and 
gathered together all as many as they found, both bad 
and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 



MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 299 

"And when the king came in to see the guests, he 
saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment : 

"And he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in 
hither not having a wedding garment? And he was 



"Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand 
and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer 
darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

' ' For many are called, but few are chosen. ' ' 

By this parable Jesus meant that because the Jews had 
refused to come into the kingdom of heaven, which he 
symbolised by the wedding of the king's son, God would 
call the Gentiles, the people of other nations, and would 
give his kingdom to them. 

And what did he mean by the one guest, who had not 
on a wedding garment? Perhaps he meant one of his 
own disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was already unfaithful 
to the Master in his heart, and who would soon put his 
unfaithfulness into action, to the point of utter betrayal. 
Did Judas realise this, as he listened to the parable? I 
cannot say. 

But the priests and elders, being still further enraged 
by this parable, again took counsel together as to how 
they could entangle Jesus in his talk. Though the Mas- 
ter never meddled with politics, if they could get him to 
say something which might be construed as being against 
the rule of the Komans, perhaps they could thus get him 
into trouble with the Koman authorities, and procure his 
death in that way. So they stood a little apart, and sent 
spies of theirs to talk with Jesus — spies who should pre- 
tend to be just men. And these spies said to him, with 
a great show of respect: 

' ' Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the 
way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man : for 



300 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

thou regardest not the person of man. Tell us therefore, 
What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto 
Csesar, or not?" 

But Jesus saw their wickedness, how they were trying 
to get him to say something against the Romans, and he 
answered them : 

"Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the 
tribute money. ' ' 

They brought him a penny, which was stamped with 
the image of Caesar. And Jesus said, pointing to the 
head upon the penny: 

"Whose is this image and superscription?" 

They answered that it was Caesar's. 

Then said Jesus, "Render therefore unto Caesar the 
things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that 
are God's." 

When the spies heard his answer, and perceived how 
much keener his mind was than their own, they marvelled 
at him; and knowing that they could never succeed in 
entangling him in that way, they left him, and went back 
to their masters, the priests and elders. 

After the spies went away, the Sadducees came to 
Jesus and put their questions. The Sadducees were those 
Jews who did not believe that there was any future for 
the soul after the death of the body. As Jesus taught 
the resurrection of the soul and the life in the hereafter, 
the Sadducees sought by their questions to make the idea 
of resurrection ridiculous. They said : 

"Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no chil- 
dren, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed 
unto his brother. 

"Now there were with us seven brethren: and the 
first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having 
no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 



MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 301 

"Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the 
seventh. 

"And last of all the woman died also. 

' ' Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be 
of the seven? for they all had her. " 

Jesus answered them : 

"Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power 
of God. 

"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are 
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 

"But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye 
not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying : 

"I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, 
but of the living. ' ' 

When the Sadducees heard this, they were astonished 
at his teaching. The idea that heaven was a spiritual 
place had never occurred to them. They went away, 
wagging their heads. How could men be like the angels? 
they wondered. Could Abraham and Isaac and Jacob be 
really alive somewhere — when they were not on the earth? 
The very idea was preposterous to the Sadducees, who 
did not believe in the life after death. 

When the Pharisees saw that Jesus had put the Sad- 
ducees to silence, they came also with other questions. 
The Pharisees, you will remember, were those Jews who 
claimed to be very learned in the Jewish law, and who 
laid great stress upon all the little rules of Moses. You 
recall the nicknames, "bloody-browed Pharisees" and 
"bandy-legged Pharisees," which the people called them, 
because of their absurd and strutting ways in walking. 
Of course, when the Pharisees came, in their turn, to 
question Jesus, they asked him regarding the letter of the 
scriptures; and one of them, a lawyer, said: 



302 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

' ' Master, which is the greatest commandment of the 
law?" 

Jesus answered: 

' ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is 
the first and great commandment. 

"And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself. 

"On these two commandments hang all the law and 
the prophets." 

"Well, Master," replied the lawyer, "thou hast said 
the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other 
but He : and to love Him with all the heart, and with all 
the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the 
strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more 
than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. ' ' 

Jesus looked at the man, whose face was earnest and 
thoughtful. Though he was a Pharisee of Jerusalem, it 
was plain that he admired the Master from Nazareth and 
felt the beauty of his teaching. In admitting that to 
love God with all his strength and to love his neighbour 
as himself was more than all burnt offerings put together, 
he proved himself to be very different to the other Phari- 
sees ; and Jesus said to him : 

"Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven." 

After that none of them dared to ask Jesus any more 
questions ; they merely listened to what he had to say. 

In telling you about the teaching of Jesus in the Temple 
that day, I am giving his exact words, instead of trying 
to interpret them ; for the sayings of Jesus were more elo- 
quent than any words of mine could be — more eloquent 
than the words of any other man who ever lived and 
whose words have been recorded. He now spoke to his 
disciples and to the multitude, saying: 



MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 303 

"The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat: All 
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe 
and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they say, and 
do not. 

"For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be 
borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they them- 
selves will not move them with one of their fingers. 

' ' But all their works they do for to be seen of men : 
they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the bor- 
ders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at 
feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greet- 
ings in the markets, and to be called of men, Eabbi, 
Rabbi. 

' ' But be not ye called Rabbi : for one is your Master, 
even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 

"And call no man your father upon the earth: for one 
is your Father, which is in heaven. 

' ' Neither be ye called masters : for one is your Mas- 
ter, even Christ. 

' ' But he that is greatest among you shall be your ser- 
vant. 

' ' And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased ; 
and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. ' ' 

We can well imagine that the scribes and Pharisees 
who listened must have writhed at words like these. We 
can see them in imagination, pulling at their long beards, 
their eyes shifting beneath the clear glance of Jesus, as 
he read their hearts and showed them what they were. 
No one before had ever dared to tell the Pharisees that 
they were hypocrites, who only did their works to be seen 
and praised of men. When Jesus said that he who 
exalted himself should be abased, he predicted the abase- 
ment of the self-exalted Pharisees, and they knew it. 

When the Master needed a living illustration for his 



304 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

teaching, something always happened to furnish him with 
the illustration. As he was telling the scribes and Phari- 
sees what they really were and were not, a poor woman, a 
widow, came to the place where he was standing, which 
was beside the treasury of the Temple. Jesus had seen 
the rich people come up, one by one, and put their money 
into the treasury; and these rich people were always 
careful that the size and value of the coins which they 
gave to God should be seen by those who stood by. But 
when the poor widow came, in her worn garments and 
with her face lean with hunger, she threw into the treas- 
ury two mites, which made a farthing — about the value 
of one-fourth of an English penny, or half an American 
cent. The heart of Jesus throbbed with love and pity, 
for he knew that the two mites which the widow had 
cast into the treasury were all she had, and that she would 
probably have no supper to eat that night. And he said 
to his disciples : 

"Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath 
cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treas- 
ury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she 
of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her 
living. ' ' 

Then Jesus turned again to the scribes and Pharisees 
who stood by, and he said : 

' ' But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : for 
ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that 
are entering to go in. 

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make 
long prayer : therefore ye shall receive the greater damna- 
tion. ' ' 

Then he took up some of their sayings and beliefs, 



MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 305 

and proved them to be utterly without sincerity. The 
Jews had a rule that he who should swear by the Temple 
to do something, or to pay some debt, was not held by 
the oath; but that he who should swear by the gold in the 
Temple, was held by that oath. And they had another 
rule that to swear by the altar was nothing, but that a 
man was responsible if he swore by the gift upon the 
altar. 

"Which is the greater," asked Jesus, "the gold, or 
the Temple which sanctifieth the gold? . . . And which 
is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the 
gift? 

"Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow 
a camel. ' ' 

And much more also the Master said to them that after- 
noon, convicting them of their hypocrisy. For Jesus 
came not only to love the world, but to teach the world 
a better way of living; and there are some who cannot 
learn by honeyed words. He reminded them that they 
were the descendants of those Jews who had killed the 
prophets in the olden time ; and knowing that they wished 
to kill him, as their fathers had killed the prophets, he 
now said to them : 

"Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers." 

And the Pharisees huddled together and listened to 
Jesus with blanched faces, for with his plain speaking 
this day they had become more than ever afraid of him. 
What would he not do, they wondered, if they allowed 
him to live? Surely he would turn all the people against 
them; he would make all men follow him and seek for 
the kingdom of heaven, so that they would no longer care 
to bring their sacrifices to the Temple, nor to pay their 
money to the priests. Had not the prophets declared 
that the Messiah when he came should bring a new law? 



306 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

They remembered what Jesus himself had said, at another 
time: 

"No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old gar- 
ment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from 
the garment, and the rent is made worse. 

' ' Neither do men put new wine into old bottles : else 
the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the 
bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, 
and both are preserved. ' ' 

The priests and Pharisees knew that Jesus meant by 
this that his religion would do away with the old Jewish 
law. If so, it would also do away with the priests and 
the Pharisees — would take away all their power. It was 
because his teaching threatened to make things harder for 
them, that the priests and Pharisees hated Jesus. What 
cared they for the kingdom of heaven? But the tithes of 
mint and anise and cummin had a meaning, to say noth- 
ing of the gold of the treasury by which they swore. As 
they stood there listening to Jesus, the nails of their 
clenched hands must have cut into their palms. Only a 
few more days, they said to themselves, should this Naza- 
rene live to trouble their peace of mind. 

As the Master was about to leave the Temple and to 
return once more to the quiet Mount of Olives, he spoke 
these words to the unbelieving city: 

"0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the 
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children together, even 
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not! 

' ' Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. ' ' 

Followed by his twelve disciples, he passed out of the 
portal of the Temple, leaving the priests and the elders 
and the scribes and the Pharisees behind him. 



MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 307 

As they stood outside, the disciples called the atten- 
tion of Jesus to the great buildings, the pillared courts, 
the glittering marbles ; for at that time the great Temple 
at Jerusalem was quite new, and the outer portions were 
not even finished. And one of the disciples said : 

' ' Master, see what manner of stones and what build- 
ings are here ! ' ' 

But Jesus did not look with admiring eyes at the 
Temple. It did not seem to him any longer to be a place 
where God was worshipped in spirit and in truth. Rather 
it was a new and useless monument to a dead and cor- 
rupted faith. And he said to his disciples : 

"Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not 
be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown 
down. ' ' 

Then, turning his back upon the Temple, Jesus passed 
out of the city and went toward the Mount of Olives, still 
followed by his disciples. 



CHAPTER XXX 

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 

During the last week of Jesus in Jerusalem, he usually 
spent the night with his disciples upon the Mount of 
Olives. This hill received its beautiful name from the 
olive-trees which grew there in abundance. From its 
green side one could look down upon the city of Jeru- 
salem. After spending the early evening in Bethany with 
his friends, Jesus would come out here with the twelve 
men, and lying upon the ground, they would watch the 
far-off glittering stars until they fell asleep. Sometimes 
they would talk for a little while, the disciples asking 
questions about God and the kingdom of heaven. Some- 
times they would be silent, each man absorbed in his own 
thoughts. This quiet retreat upon the Mount of Olives, 
after the noisy day in Jerusalem, was for Jesus a sweet 
refreshment, a going back to Nature for peace and poise. 
God seemed near, out there among the olive-trees, under 
the quiet stars ; and all the strife and wrangling of Jeru- 
salem seemed far away. 

The night following the day on which he had answered 
the questions of the scribes and Pharisees in the great 
Temple, the Master came out here, as usual, with his dis- 
ciples. He walked a little distance away from the others 
and sat down upon a great rock. How still everything 
was, and how peaceful! Even the enmity of the Jews 
in Jerusalem seemed here like an unreal dream. Here 
only God seemed real — He and His love for this green 
309 



310 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

earth, which was only a place of trial for His children. 
Jesus was almost happy, as he sat there alone that night, 
under the sympathetic stars. He seemed to breathe the 
atmosphere of eternity, and could consider without too 
great sadness all the terrible things which he knew were 
going to happen in the world. 

But soon he heard footsteps coming near, and turning 
his head, he saw in the starlight four of his disciples, 
Peter, with Andrew his brother, and the brothers James 
and John. They had left the other men back there some- 
where among the shadows of the night, and had sought 
the Master in secret, that they might learn from him the 
truth about certain questions which were troubling their 
minds. 

They sat down at the feet of Jesus, around the base of 
the rock, and began to ask him about his second coming, 
and about the end of the present world. For Jesus had 
told them that, though he was soon going to his Father 
in heaven, he would return to the world some day and 
would bring the kingdom of heaven with him. And the 
four disciples now asked him when that time would be. 

And Jesus answered them that, when he was gone, 
they must take heed that no man deceived them. He 
said that other men would come saying that they were the 
Christ, and that many persons would be deceived, believ- 
ing that these false prophets were the Son of man him- 
self. He told them that before he should return to the 
world there would be many wars, that nation would rise 
against nation and kingdom against kingdom, that there 
would be famine and pestilence and earthquakes — that all 
these things would be only the beginning of sorrows. 
But the end would not be yet. 

And when the four men asked how it would be with 
them, in this time of trial which was to come, the Master 



ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 311 

answered that his disciples, in that dark time, would be 
delivered up to councils of men; that in the Jewish syna- 
gogues they would be beaten; that they would be brought 
before rulers and kings, who would question them con- 
cerning Jesus and the gospel which they preached in his 
name. 

But, he told them, when those in authority should 
turn to them for testimony of the Son of man, they should 
not think beforehand of what they were going to say ; but 
that they should trust in the living Christ, who would be 
always with them in their hearts, and would give them 
such wisdom in answering questions that all their ene- 
mies should not be able to reason against them. Though 
the answers came from their mouths, it would really be 
the Holy Spirit which should speak through them. 

The four disciples were filled with wonder at the idea 
of the Holy Spirit using them for a mouthpiece, and 
they naturally supposed that the kings and rulers would 
consider them very highly in the days when such things 
should be. But Jesus told them, instead, that they 
should be delivered up to be afflicted, that men should 
kill them, and that they should be hated of all nations 
because they were the apostles of Christ. Yet, he as- 
sured them, if they endured unto the end, they should 
dwell with him in the kingdom of heaven. 

And he told them that in that dark time brothers 
should betray their brothers to death, that fathers should 
betray their sons, that children should rise up against 
their parents and cause them to be put to death, that many 
false prophets would arise and would deceive the world ; 
and that because of all this confusion and hatred, 
wherein it would be difficult to know what was true from 
what was false, the love of many of his own followers 
would grow cold; but that they, like the disciples, who 



312 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

should endure unto the end, would also be saved with 
Christ in the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus told them that this gospel of the kingdom of 
heaven should be preached throughout all the world, to 
all the nations of the earth, and that when this was ac- 
complished the Christ would come again. But before 
that blessed consummation, when all nations should know 
the religion of Jesus, the dark time must first be passed 
through. 

The four disciples had still not a very clear under- 
standing of what the dark time would be like, and they 
wanted to know what would really happen in those 
days. 

Jesus told them that they should possess their souls 
in patience; that when they saw Jerusalem compassed 
with armies, they should know that the desolation thereof 
was nigh. When they should see standing in the holy 
place the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel 
the prophet, them that were in Judsea should flee into 
the mountains; he who was on the house-top should not 
come down to take anything out of his house; neither 
should the man who was in the field return to take his 
clothes. Jesus said that they should pray that their 
flight be not in winter, nor on the Sabbath day ; for there 
should be great tribulation, such as had not been from 
the beginning of the world unto that time, nor ever 
should be again. Except those days should be shortened 
by God, he said, no one would be saved alive; but that 
for the sake of the elect of God, those days would be 
shortened; for they were the days of vengeance, that all 
the things which had been written might be fulfilled. 

And Jesus told them further that in those dark days 
there should be great wrath upon the people of Israel, that 
many should fall by the sword, and many be led away 



ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 313 

captive unto other nations, and that Jerusalem should be 
trodden down by the Gentiles. 

Then he warned them again against the false prophets 
who were to come, declaring that they were the Christ, and 
showing signs and wonders to the people, so that by their 
false works they should deceive even the elect of God. 

Wherefore, Jesus told his disciples, if any one should 
say to them jthat Christ was in the desert, they should 
not go forth to seek him there; and if any one should say 
that Christ was in the secret chambers, they should not 
believe it; for, he told them, "as the lightning cometh 
out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall 
also the coming of the Son of man be. ' ' 

And the four disciples listened with bated breath and 
with wide and troubled eyes. They now understood that 
Jesus was really going away from them; but hoiv he was 
going they did not know. Notwithstanding all that he 
had told them regarding the coming death of the Son of 
man through the enmity of the Jews, that he should be 
scourged and killed as if he were a common malefactor, 
they did not comprehend that he meant it in a literal 
sense. To them it seemed, even yet, that their Master 
would be caught up to heaven in a blaze of glory. 

And now they asked him how, after he should have 
left them and gone to the Father, and after the days of 
tribulation also, they should know beforehand that the 
Christ was coming soon, and be prepared for him. 

And Jesus answered them that after the days of tribu- 
lation there should be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, 
with perplexity; that the sea and the waves of the sea 
should roar, and that men's hearts should fail them for 
fear, as they saw the things which had come upon the 
earth and saw also the powers of heaven shaken. Then, 



314 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

said Jesus, the Son of man would come in a cloud, with 
power and great glory. When all these predicted things 
had happened, the disciples should lift up their heads, 
for then they would know that their redemption was near. 
And the Christ, the Son of man, would send his angels 
with a great sound of a trumpet, and the angels would 
gather together the elect of Christ from the four winds, 
from one end of heaven to the other. 

As the four disciples heard this promise of the Master 
to come again with power and glory, their eyes were 
aflame with faith. In imagination they saw him appear 
in the heavens; they saw the form of Jesus, which they 
loved, suddenly shining in the sky above the troubled 
earth; they heard the trumpet of the angels. The face of 
John, especially, was illuminated with the fire of his 
enthusiasm; for John loved Jesus with an intense love. 
On him had been bestowed at birth the divine gift of 
imagination; and long years afterward, when he came to 
write his Eevelation, it is almost certain that his mind 
went back to this hour upon the Mount of Olives, and to 
the words which Jesus spoke there under the stars. The 
vision which he had at this moment, as he listened to 
the voice of Jesus predicting his second coming, made 
possible that other and greater vision upon the Isle of 
Patmos. 

After a short silence, the Master again spoke to them. 
When the fig-tree put forth its leaves, he said, they knew 
that the summer was nigh ; so also, when they should see 
the terrible things he had predicted for the days of deso- 
lation, they would know that the kingdom of heaven was 
near. 

"Heaven and earth shall pass away," he said, "but 
my words shall not pass away. ' ' 

Not even the angels of heaven, Jesus told them, knew 



ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 315 

when the hour of his coming would be ; but only God the 
Father. For as in the days of Noah before the flood, 
they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving 
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the 
ark, and the great waters came and carried them all 
away ; so should it be with the coming of the Son of man. 

In that day, said Jesus, the angels of God should 
gather the saved together from all the quarters of the 
earth. Two men should be together in a field; the one 
should be taken by the angels and the other left. Two 
women should be grinding at a mill; the one should be 
taken and the other left. 

Jesus told his friends that they must be always watch- 
ing for his coming. He said : 

' ' For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, 
who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, 
and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to 
watch. 

"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master 
of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the 
cockcrowing, or in the morning : Lest coming suddenly he 
find you sleeping. ' ' 

As the four disciples listened with shining eyes, they 
told themselves that after Jesus should have left them and 
returned to the Father, they would be ever on the watch, 
lest the Christ should come back unawares and find them 
sleeping. 

To these men, the coming of the kingdom of heaven 
was as real and certain as the coming of the springtime is 
with us. As in the dead of winter, when the snows fall, 
and the winds blow, and the cold pierces to our bones, 
we think longingly of the springtime with its roses and 
warmth and soft breezes ; so the disciples, in the sad and 
selfish world which surrounded them, dreamed of the king- 



316 STORIES FROM THE MEW TESTAMENT 

dom of heaven, dreamed of the time when Jesus should 
come again, as he had promised, and should take them to 
a place where there would be no more sadness or selfishness 
or pain or strife, where every man would love his neigh- 
bour as himself, and all would be happy in the bosom of 
Christ. 

It is no wonder that such a faith, in the hearts of even 
a few, had power to change the world; and though the 
kingdom of heaven has not yet come to men, there are 
still a few, here and there upon the earth, who dream as 
the disciples dreamed, and who watch for the coming of 
the Christ. 

That his friends might ever watch without weariness, 
Jesus told them another parable, that of the wise and 
foolish virgins. As you will often hear this parable 
referred to, I will tell it to you now, in the very words of 
Jesus. He said: 

' ' Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 
ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to 
meet the bridegroom. 

"And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 

"They that were foolish took their lamps, and took 
no oil with them : 

"But the wise took oil in their vessels with their 
lamps. 

"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered 
and slept. 

"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the 
bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 

"Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their 
lamps. 

' ' And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your 
oil ; for our lamps are gone out. 

' ' But the wise answered, saying, Not so ; lest there be 



ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 317 

not enough for us and you : but go ye rather to them that 
sell, and buy for yourselves. 

"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; 
and they that were ready went in with him to the mar- 
riage : and the door was shut. 

"Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, 
Lord, open to us. 

"But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I 
know you not. 

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor 
the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. " 

One reason why the teaching of Jesus had such a 
charm for men, was because of the beautiful symbols 
which he used in speaking of himself. To those who 
loved him, he was the bridegroom of the parable of the 
virgins, the one for whose coming all watched with 
eagerness. He called himself the lamb of God, because 
the people to whom he was talking were born of a race of 
shepherds, who loved the sheep, and in whose minds the 
very idea of a lamb suggested gentleness and love. When 
he said, at another time, that he was the rose of Sharon 
and the lily of the valley, the names of these familiar 
flowers called up visions of beauty and sweetness. Not 
only should they love him as their Master, but they 
should love him as they loved the roses and the lilies, 
whose fragrance could make them forget the sadness of 
the world. If we knew nothing of the history of Jesus, 
and had only his sayings to judge him by, we would still 
pronounce him the supreme genius of the world. When 
he said, ' ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest, ' ' he made it impossible 
that the weary souls of earth should ever forget him. 

If, in the years to come, you shall study the sayings 



318 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

of all the greatest teachers of the world, of Manu, of 
Buddha, of Confucius, of Lao-tsze, of Socrates, of Plato, 
of Mahomet, and shall compare them with the simple 
sayings of Jesus, you will still say, with me, that no 
other man who ever lived could speak as Jesus spoke. 

And he said that night to the four disciples who were 
there with him on the Mount of Olives : 

' ' When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and 
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the 
throne of his glory: 

' ' And before him shall be gathered all nations : and 
he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats : 

"And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but 
the goats on the left. 

"Then shall the King say unto them on his right 
hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world : 

' ' For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat : I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye 
took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye 
visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 

"Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, 
and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and 
took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw 
we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 

' ' And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily 
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'''' 

And he told them also that he would say to those on 
the left hand, those who were unfit for the kingdom of 
heaven, that inasmuch as they had not fed the hungry, 
nor clothed the naked, nor visited the sick, nor minis- 



ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 319 

tered to their brethren in prison, they had not done these 
things for him. 

Can we wonder, then, that those who try to follow Jesus 
still feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and visit the 
sick, and minister to those in prison? For to love the 
Christ is to love to do these things for him. And should 
any one ever tell you that Christianity has been a failure 
in the world, because the world is still cold and selfish, 
because men still despise and hate and speak evil of their 
fellowmen, instead of loving them, you can truthfully 
answer that real Christianity, the Christianity of Jesus, 
has never been practised except by a very few, from the 
days of the apostles until now. Will it ever be practised 
by the many? Perhaps. And if it ever should be, then 
the kingdom of heaven, of which Jesus told his disciples 
that night upon the Mount of Olives, will come to the 
world, and men will dwell in the kingdom of heaven 
though they still walk the earth. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

JUDAS ISCAEIOT 

There are certain names which, whenever they are 
spoken, remind the hearer of certain qualities. When 
we hear the name of Alexander, for example, we think 
immediately of war, of conquest, of empire. The name 
of Plato suggests philosophy and high-thinking. We 
can hardly hear the name of Nero without shuddering at 
the ideas of cruelty which go with it. And the name of 
the man I am going to tell you about in this story is one 
of those which carry a definite meaning. But the name 
of Judas, instead of summoning ideas of conquest and 
high-thinking, calls up a very different thought — the 
thought of treachery. 

In reading about the ministry of Jesus, and about the 
men who travelled with him as his disciples through 
Galilee and Judaea, you have often read the name of 
Judas Iscariot. You remember how, at the supper in 
Bethany, the evening before the day on which the dis- 
ciples strewed palm branches for their Master to ride over 
at Bethphage near Jerusalem, Judas had been angry with 
Mary Magdalene for breaking the alabaster box and 
anointing the head and feet of Jesus with the precious 
ointment of spikenard. You also remember having read 
that John, the beloved disciple, did not trust Judas, but 
declared that he was a thief who sometimes stole the 
money from the purse which Jesus had given him to 
carry. Yet these incidents, while unlovely in them- 
321 



322 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 



selves, were as nothing in comparison with what Judas 
was to do afterward. 

During the last week in Jerusalem, many things had 
happened to trouble Judas. He had believed that his 
Master would be glorified immediately, that Jesus would 
reveal himself in such a way that the scribes and Phari- 
sees and all the other unbelieving Jews would be obliged 
to worship him. He could not have told, for certain, 
just what he expected — perhaps that a flaming cloud 
would come down out of heaven, and that Jesus would be 
snatched up to glory amid the plaudits of the multitude. 
Judas loved plaudits. In Galilee he had delighted to be 
one of the followers of Jesus, because the simple people in 
Galilee hailed Jesus as a Master and did him honours ; 
but Judas did not like the shrugs and sneers of the high 
priests in Jerusalem. If the Master were really the 
Messiah of the Jews, he reasoned, why should not the 
high priests be aware of it? Why, Jesus could not even 
enter the Holy of Holies — the inner place in the great 
Temple! Only the high priest could go in there. Surely 
something must be wrong! Could it be that Jesus was 
not really the Messiah, after all? 

There is no seed which grows so fast as the seed of 
doubt. From the moment when Judas first doubted that 
his Master was the Messiah, his treachery began. Some 
persons may believe that Judas was altogether bad from 
the beginning; but that is not possible, because Jesus 
named him as a disciple. Jesus had love and pity for 
the weak, the erring and the sinful; but he would not 
have made the compact of discipleship with the devil, or 
with a man who was altogether of the devil. No, there 
was good as well as evil in the heart of Judas, and it was 
the good which Jesus saw and had tried to foster. 

When you are older, you may hear learned discussions 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 323 

upon the subject of free will; but there is no better illus- 
tration of the doctrine of free will than Judas Iscariot. 
Judas had every opportunity to be true, and he could de- 
liberately be false to the Master, because his will was free. 
He was not forced to this betrayal by necessity. 

As Jesus himself taught that we should try to under- 
stand the hearts of others in order that we may truly pity 
them, it is for us to try to understand Judas. It may 
not be easy, but we can at least try. If we look deep, 
we shall probably find that it was selfishness, vanity and 
jealousy that ruined Judas, as they have ruined so many 
others before and since. 

We know that Judas came from Kerioth, in the south, 
that he was the only one of the disciples who was not a 
Galilean. This alone made him feel different to the 
others, a stranger and an alien. He wanted to be first 
in the friendship of the Master, and he was not first. He 
was not even second, or third. It is true that he carried 
the purse; but money was never considered very highly 
by Jesus. And Judas knew quite well why Jesus had 
made him treasurer; it was because some of the others 
had said that he was a thief. 

John did not like Judas, and it was he who had 
started the story that Judas was not honest. The man 
from Kerioth had never forgiven this. Not only did he 
have a grudge against John, but he was very jealous of 
him. John was young and beautiful, and Judas was 
neither beautiful nor young. John was the beloved dis- 
ciple, the confidant of the Master, and Judas was — the 
treasurer. It was he who was sent out to buy things ; it 
was John who remained with Jesus, in intimate and lov- 
ing converse with him. 

Sometimes when Judas came back from one of his 
errands in the markets, and saw John leaning on the 



324 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

bosom of Jesus, his young and wistful face upraised to 
the face of the Master, Judas could hardly control his 
desire to snatch the young man away from his place 
beside Jesus. What right, Judas would mutter to him- 
self, had John to think that Jesus loved him best? The 
Master had never said so. Then it seemed to Judas that 
John's mother, Salome, was always pushing him forward. 
Judas had no mother, and women did not like him very 
well. They liked John. Even the mother of Jesus was 
always turning to him with her soft and patient smile. 
And Mary Magdalene! Judas could have struck John 
sometimes when he saw Mary lean upon his arm. 

All these grudges and exasperations Judas had borne 
as patiently as he could, for he had loved the Master more 
than he had ever loved any other being. Indeed, Jesus 
was the only one who had ever seemed really to care for 
him. When he had been called to be a disciple, it had 
seemed to Judas that all his trials were over. He did 
not know that discipleship was the beginning of trials, 
that it was a test of character and strength — not a reward. 
Jesus had called some of his friends the first time he saw 
them, trusting to the future to prove their fitness. Their 
reward was to come in the kingdom of heaven ; though it 
seems to us that the privilege of being with Jesus was in 
itself the supreme reward. 

But now, when Judas began to doubt that his Master 
was really going to be glorified, after all, he began also to 
think of the trials which he himself had endured. Then, 
too, it is more than probable that on that Wednesday 
morning, after the beautiful talk in regard to the coming 
of the kingdom of heaven which the four favourite dis- 
ciples had had with Jesus upon the Mount of Olives, one 
of the four — perhaps Andrew, perhaps Peter — had told 
Judas some of the other things which the Master had 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 325 

said that night : how they were themselves to be perse- 
cuted after Jesus should have returned to the Father; how 
they would be beaten in the synagogues, and delivered up 
to councils, and hated of all men on account of their rela- 
tions with the Master. We can well imagine that these 
predictions were terrible to Judas. To be beaten in the 
synagogues! To be hated of all men! These were not 
the prospects for which he had become a disciple. 

Jesus must have known that Wednesday morning what 
was passing in the mind of the man from Kerioth. We 
can see his gentle eyes fixed intently upon the face of 
Judas. How he must have pitied him! But not even 
Jesus could choose for another — his own disciple — the 
way in which he should walk. 

As I have said before, there must have been in Judas 
some good, or the Master would not have chosen him to 
be one of his disciples. Perhaps it was the very inten- 
sity of his nature which made his discipleship possible, 
perhaps it was some poiver in him which Jesus hoped to 
turn altogether in the right way; for power is power, and 
can be used for good or evil, according to the will of the 
possessor. This we must never forget. The fire which 
warms our house may also burn our house, if it is not 
carefully guarded. The electricity which gives us light 
and moves our cars and carriages, is the same power 
which, in the ungoverned lightning, can blast the giant 
pine-tree or strike a man to death. 

Judas left his friends that Wednesday morning in 
Jerusalem, and wandered away by himself. Jesus was 
preaching, as usual, in the court of the Temple, and the 
crowd around him was so great that Judas felt that he 
would not be missed. There was a terrible idea in his 
mind, and he wanted to be alone to think about it. He 
was already unfaithful to Jesus in his heart; and from 



326 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

thought to action, in a man of hie violent temperament, 
there is often but a step. That step, in the case of Judas, 
proved to be the short distance which separated the court 
of the Temple from the palace of Caiaphas, the high 
priest. 

Judas knew that in the palace of the high priest the 
enemies of Jesus were conspiring against him. Did he 
deliberately say to himself that he intended to betray his 
Master? I cannot tell you, and neither can anyone else. 
The thoughts and motives of the simplest man are often 
obscure even to himself, and Judas was not simple. 

Some men who have written about Judas have believed 
that he betrayed Jesus to the high priests and helped 
them to arrest him, in the hope that his Master would 
thereby be obliged to manifest his divinity. If he 
doubted that Jesus was the Messiah, and was not sure, he 
may have wanted to put it to the test. But did he really 
believe that the Master, when arrested and brought to 
trial, would smite his enemies with the lightning of God? 
Did he believe that if Jesus were really the Messiah he 
would be glorified immediately after his arrest; that he 
would be transfigured, as Peter and James and John had 
seen him upon Mount Hermon? During the happy days 
in Galilee, before the real troubles of Jesus began, Judas 
may have believed that his Master was all-powerful ; but 
it is extremely doubtful if he believed it any longer. 

Judas went to the palace of the high priest and asked 
to see Caiaphas. Notwithstanding the boldness of his 
action, his heart beat very fast as he passed through the 
wide doorway of the palace. The doorkeepers stared at 
him, having already seen him with the Master from Naza- 
reth. What did he want there, they wondered? When 
Judas was left in an anteroom until his visit should be 
announced to the high priest, the master of the palace, 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 327 

there was a great buzzing of tongues among the minions 
of the priestly household. A disciple of Jesus of Naza- 
reth ! The man who carried the money-bag and bought 
supplies in the markets! We may be sure that the 
servants made coarse jokes, and asked each other if the 
treasurer of the Galilean prophet had come with his 
money-bag to bribe the high priest. The servant boys 
jeered covertly at him, and winked at each other. 

As Judas waited in the anteroom of the high priest, it 
is possible that the desire to run away came suddenly 
over him. It was not yet too late. He could tell those 
jeering boys that it was all a mistake, and walk swiftly 
out of the palace. But he did not do it. He still sat 
there and waited until Caiaphas should send for him. 

In the council chamber of the palace the high priest 
was with his father-in-law, Annas, and the other priests 
and scribes and elders. At the very moment when a 
servant came to announce that a disciple of the prophet 
from Nazareth was below and wanted to see the high 
priest, they were talking about Jesus. Caiaphas had 
just repeated his former saying, to the effect that Jesus 
and Judaism could not both continue to exist. 

Old Annas, who had been high priest before Caiaphas, 
and who still retained his influence over the councillors and 
over his son-in-law, was the most powerful enemy of Jesus. 
Like all the priests of Jerusalem, these two men were 
of the Sadducees, the Jewish sect which did not believe in 
the resurrection, and whose members therefore held even 
more rigidly to the forms of their religion. Believing in 
no future life, they wanted to get everything possible out 
of this life. And it was a nice and fat and comfortable 
position — that of high priest in Jerusalem. 

Caiaphas was devoted to the Komans, and did every- 
thing he could to please them — everything, that is, 



328 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

which would not jeopardise his own position among the 
Jews. 

It is easy for one who has ever lived in an oriental 
country, under the rule of a European empire, to picture 
Caiaphas, the ambitious and scheming native leader, who 
curries favour with his masters by adopting their vices, 
and who only seeks to hold control over his own people 
because it is by reason of that control that he is petted by 
his rulers. 

If the religion of Jesus should make headway among 
the Jews, Caiaphas reasoned, the high priest himself 
would lose influence with them; and if he lost influence 
among his own people he would lose influence also with 
the Romans, who made use of him for their own ends, 
and, as he served those ends, piled honours on him — but 
not otherwise. 

Old Annas, on the contrary, hated Jesus for quite 
another reason. He had retained more of his Jewish feel- 
ing than had the present high priest ; he was less modern 
(using the word in the sense in which it must have been 
used about the year 30 a. d. ) and his hatred of Jesus was 
intensely bigoted. It was the self-proclaimed Messiah 
who aroused the wrath of Annas. 

Let us take a little liberty of imagination, and try to 
picture that council of priests and elders, all of them old 
or middle-aged, sitting together in an inner room of the 
palace and debating what they could do to get rid of 
Jesus. Their faces were long and serious, their eyes 
sharp, their foreheads wrinkled with frowns. How dared 
this Nazarene, they snarled, disturb the peace of Jeru- 
salem? What were the times coming to, when any self- 
styled prophet could come into the Temple and preach a 
new doctrine? Annas, the conservative old Jew, suggested 
that it all came from permitting their sons to study 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 329 

Greek; but the more modern Caiaphas reminded him that 
the people who followed Jesus knew nothing of the cult- 
ure of the Greeks, and very little of the Jewish. Annas 
believed that society was being destroyed by tolerating 
new things. Caiaphas had no objection to new things 
because they were new; but he objected to Jesus because 
he was dangerous to law and order. And of course law 
and order meant the law and order of Caiaphas. The 
human heart has changed little from those far days until 
now. 

But however the councillors might disagree as to the 
reasons why the people followed Jesus, they were of one 
mind in their desire to get rid of him. And one after 
another suggested plans by which they might take Jesus 
and kill him. One of the scribes, a mere bookworm who 
had no judgment where practical things were concerned, 
suggested that they fall upon Jesus in the Temple and 
carry him away; but the wiser and more subtle priests 
pronounced this plan absurd, because the Nazarene was 
too popular with the crowds. To do such a thing openly 
would be to bring down upon their heads the wrath of the 
multitude. 

No, the more worldly among them reasoned, it would 
be necessary to do whatever they had to do as quietly as 
possible. Caiaphas, of course, was for having it done in 
accordance with the Roman law. This would be easy, if 
they could make it seem that Jesus was a blasphemer 
against the Jewish religion, for the Romans gave the 
Jews great freedom in matters of religion — in order that 
they might control them the better in worldly matters. 
That is always the way of wisdom and of least resistance 
on the part of the rulers of oriental empires. 

One plan after another was suggested and discarded, 
as being too dangerous. The old priests thought Caiaphas 



330 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

was too tolerant, Caiaphas thought the old priests were 
too bigoted. Caiaphas did not really care whether Jesus 
was a blasphemer or not ; but of course he did not say so 
— he was far too wise for that. So long as the others, 
and especially Annas, helped him to get rid of Jesus, 
what did their motives matter to him? 

It was finally agreed that they must not kill Jesus dur- 
ing the feast of the Passover, which began two days hence, 
on Friday night, lest there should be an uproar among the 
people. No, they had better not wait until then, but act 
quickly. In order to do that, it would be necessary to 
know where Jesus spent his time when he was not in the 
Temple. Of course, in those days there were no news- 
papers to give details of the private actions and haunts 
of noted men, and the gossip of an oriental city can never 
be depended upon for accuracy. Indeed, a dozen differ- 
ent men might say that the Nazarene was in a dozen dif- 
ferent places at any given time. They would need to 
have accurate information as to the whereabouts of Jesus 
when he was away from the multitude. They all began 
to discuss the question as to how they could best obtain 
that information. 

Then into this wrangling assembly (for the Jews 
always wrangled, even in the palace of the high priest) 
came a servant, timidly, apologetically, and whispered 
something to Caiaphas. Every one else looked curiously at 
the two. They saw Caiaphas start, they heard him ask the 
servant to repeat what he had said, they saw the look of 
astonishment deepen on the face of the high priest. 
Then he nodded to the servant, who withdrew, and 
Caiaphas turned to his fellow-councillors with the simple 
statement : 

"A disciple of Jesus of Nazareth who desires to see 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 331 

Bombshells had not been invented in those days, so I 
will not liken the astonishment of the councillors to that 
following the explosion of a bombshell. I will say, 
instead, that if the Temple buildings had suddenly fallen, 
these men would not have been more surprised. After a 
moment of stupefied silence, they all began talking at 
once. 

A disciple of the Nazarene? What could the man 
want? Had he come on behalf of his Master to seek 
reconciliation with the priests? Impossible! The per- 
son who suggested that could have little knowledge of 
Jesus ! Which of the disciples was it? Oh, what differ- 
ence did that make! On the contrary, it made much 
difference. Were not all Galileans alike? But there was 
one among the disciples of the Nazarene who was not a 
Galilean. Oh, yes — the man from Kerioth! An ugly- 
looking fellow, perhaps it was he. It surely could not be 
the young and handsome one — for even in Jerusalem the 
comeliness of John was a subject of comment. Well, they 
would soon know. Where was the man, and why did he 
not come in? 

Finally the door was again opened, and Judas stood 
on the threshold. Oh, yes, said some one, it was the man 
from Kerioth ! The priests all looked at Judas as if he 
were some strange kind of wild animal, dropped suddenly 
down among them. And Judas, indeed, felt rather wild 
as he stood there in the doorway of the council chamber, 
before that company of learned men — for to the simple 
Jews of the lower classes the high priests and scribes of 
Jerusalem were prodigies of learning. 

Caiaphas asked Judas to come in, and the door was 
closed behind him. The betrayer of his Master was alone 
with his Master's enemies. 

The scene which took place in that room in the high 






332 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

priest's palace was almost too terrible to describe. The 
Christian world has shuddered at it ever since. There 
was made there that Wednesday a deliberate compact 
between the high priests and Judas, in which the latter 
promised to do all that the priests desired. But before 
he made that promise, he asked them how much money 
they would give him. 

This man whom Jesus had loved and called his disci- 
ple, this man who had wandered with the master along 
the pleasant ways of Galilee, who had eaten with him 
from the same dish and drank from the same cup, who 
had listened to his teaching and had sat at his feet, who 
had seen him still the tempest on the lake of Gennesaret, 
who had lain near him under the stars and had stood 
beside him at the bedside of the dying, who had himself 
preached the faith of Jesus, and had even cast out demons 
and healed the sick, as all the other disciples had — this 
man now sold his Master. 

We are told that the high priests "covenanted with 
him for thirty pieces of silver." It is likely that the 
Jewish priests first offered him less than thirty silver 
pieces, and that Judas stood out for a higher price. Was 
not the service which he had to sell really worth more 
money to the high priests? It was a unique service, 
Judas must have argued, a service which no one else 
would perform. He knew all the habits and all the 
haunts of Jesus, and no one else whom the high priests 
could buy had this intimate knowledge. Yes, at last they 
agreed to give him thirty silver pieces. It seemed a 
great deal of money to Judas, who had always been a poor 
man. Perhaps he could have got more, if he had in- 
sisted. Whatever his feelings were, we know that he 
fulfilled his agreement. 

But in order to fulfil his agreement and earn his 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 333 

thirty silver pieces, it was necessary for him to return to 
Jesus and his fellow-disciples, that he might inform the 
priests as to what they were doing. And Judas con- 
curred in all the plans of his new associates, as he had 
formerly concurred in all the plans of his Master. The 
efficient treasurer became now the efficient spy. 

After he left the high priest's palace, it is likely that' 
he walked about alone for awhile, forming his plans. By 
this time, the good angel of Judas, which Jesus had 
recognised and had tried to help, must have spread its 
white wings and flown away to heaven, leaving Judas to 
the fate which he had deliberately chosen. 

You have read, in Milton perhaps, about the fall of 
the rebel angels. Here was the fall of a man who had 
been a disciple, and who might have become a saint. 
And his reward was to be thirty pieces of silver! 



CHAPTER XXXII 

THE LAST SUPPER 

It was Thursday, the day following that on which 
Judas had covenanted with the high priests to betray his 
Master. The unhappy man was now again with Jesus 
and the other disciples, trying to behave as if nothing 
had happened. The night before, after leaving Jeru- 
salem, he had gone out with them, as usual, to the 
Mount of Olives, and had laid himself down to sleep in 
company with the Master whom he had sold. As he had 
looked up at the shining stars, perhaps he had counted 
thirty of them, reminding himself of the thirty pieces of 
silver which he would earn on the morrow. It is diffi- 
cult to enter into the soul of a man like Judas, and to 
understand his feelings now. We may be certain, though, 
that when he laid himself down to sleep that Wednesday 
night, he chose a spot as far as possible from Jesus and 
from the faithful John and Peter. 

On Thursday, the disciples asked Jesus where he 
wished them to prepare a place that he might eat the 
Passover. And Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to 
them: 

"Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man 
bearing a pitcher of water : follow him. 

' ' And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good 
man of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guest- 
chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my dis- 
ciples? 

335 



336 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

' ' And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished 
and prepared: there make ready for us." 

The two disciples went into the city, as Jesus had told 
them, and there they met a man carrying a pitcher of 
water; and they followed him. When the man went into a 
house, the disciples went in also. Then, seeing the 
owner of the house, they said to him exactly what Jesus 
had told them: 

"The Master saith, Where is the guest-chamber, where 
I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?" 

And the owner of the house led the two disciples up- 
stairs, and showed them a large upper chamber furnished 
with a long table and with divans. And the two disci- 
ples prepared a supper there for their Master and his 
followers. 

And in the evening Jesus came with his disciples to 
the house which the two had found by following the man 
with the pitcher of water. And they made ready to eat. 

In the East men take off their shoes before meals, and 
often, when they have been walking a long way and their 
feet are tired and dusty, they bathe them before sitting 
down at the table. That Thursday evening, when Jesus 
and the twelve disciples were assembled in that upper 
room in the strange house in Jerusalem, Jesus laid aside 
his outer garments, and taking a large towel, he girded 
himself. The disciples wondered what he was going 
to do. 

Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash 
the tired and dusty feet of his disciples, and to wipe 
them on the towel with which he was girded. 

Peter was astonished that the Master should do this 
humble service for those so much inferior to himself ; and 
when Jesus came to the place where Peter was sitting, the 
disciple said to him in amazement: 



THE LAST SUPPER 337 

"Lord, dost thou wash my feet?" 

Jesus knew how Peter felt, and loved him all the bet- 
ter for it; but there was a profound meaning in what he 
did, and he wanted Peter to understand. So he said to 
him, very gently : 

"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt 
know hereafter. ' ' 

But Peter still shrank from letting the Master serve 
him. He said: 

' ' Thou shalt never wash my feet ! ' ' 

"If I wash thee not," answered Jesus, "thou shalt 
have no part in me. ' ' 

The Master had always taught them by parables and 
symbols, and now Peter understood a part at least of 
what Jesus meant, so he assented gladly, saying : 

"Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my 
head," meaning that he wished Jesus by his love to 
purify him completely. 

"He that is washed, " replied "Jesus, "needeth not 
save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye 
are clean — but not all. " 

As he said this, he glanced along the line of his disci- 
ples, for he knew already in his heart that one of them 
was false to him. But the other disciples did not know. 

When Jesus had finished washing the feet of the 
twelve men (including Judas), he put on his garments 
again, and sat down. Then he said to them : 

"Know ye what I have done to you? 

' ' Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well ; for so 
I am. 

"If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your 
feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. 

' ' For I have given you an example, that ye should do 
as I have done to you. 



338 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not 
greater than his lord ; neither he that is sent greater than 
he that sent him." 

And the disciples looked lovingly at one another, each 
man (save Judas) wondering how he himself could 
humbly serve the others, and so follow the beautiful 
example in humility which the Master had given them. 
This incident, like everything else which happened that 
evening, was indelibly stamped upon the memories of 
the faithful ones. The Master had washed them and had 
made them clean, they felt. In future they must wash 
one another — that is, they must help one another to be 
pure. And they must also be humble, doing the lowest 
services for all those who were weary and dusty from 
walking the highways of life. 

When they were gathered round the table at supper, 
and were eating together, the face of Jesus grew very sad, 
so sad that the faithful disciples wondered what new 
sorrow was in his heart. Finally he said: 

"Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with 
me shall betray me. ' ' 

The men looked at one another with sorrowful faces, 
shocked and grieved at the words of Jesus. To the 
eleven it seemed impossible that a disciple of the Master 
should betray him. But the heart of Judas leaped into 
his throat, though he controlled his agitation. 

Then one after another the disciples began to question 
Jesus, saying, "Is it I?" "Is it I?" And Judas also 
asked, even as the others, "Master, is it I?" 

Jesus answered gravely, "It is one of the twelve, that 
dippeth with me in the dish." Then he added: 

' ' The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him : 
but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed ! 
Good were it for that man if he had never been born." 



THE LAST SUPPER 339 

As they sat there at supper, John, the beloved disci- 
ple, was leaning upon the bosom of the Master, so that he 
could speak to him without being heard by the others. 
And Peter beckoned to John, that he should ask Jesus 
which man it was of whom he had spoken — which of 
them it was who should betray him. 

And John, bringing his mouth close to the ear of 
Jesus, whispered to him : 

"Lord, who is it?" 

"He it is," answered the Master in a low tone, "he it 
is, to whom I shall give the sop, when I have dipped 
it." 

Then Jesus took a morsel of bread in his hand, and 
dipped it in the dish, and when he had dipped it, he 
gave the sop to Judas Iscariot. 

John, in telling the story afterward, said that when 
Jesus had given him the sop, the devil entered into 
Judas. By this we suppose he meant that the man's face 
darkened with anger, and that he gave some violent 
expression to his feelings. For Judas had always been 
envious of John, and when he saw him there on the 
Master's breast, and when he saw the glance of mutual 
understanding which passed between John and Jesus 
after the sop had been given to him, the pent-up jealousy 
in the heart of Judas must have burst all bounds. He had 
now no longer a reason for concealing his perfidy, for it 
had been discovered. 

Jesus said to Judas : 

' ' What thou doest, do quickly. ' ' 

Judas turned, and went immediately out of the sup- 
per-room. No one but John knew what the Master had 
meant in telling him to do quickly that which he had to 
do. The others supposed that, as Judas still had the 
money-bag, Jesus had told him to buy those things which 



340 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

they had need of for the feast of the Passover, which fell 
upon the morrow ; or that he should give something to the 
poor. It was not until afterward that they knew. 

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said to the others 
that now the Son of man was glorified, and that God was 
glorified in him. He meant that the betrayal by Judas 
was a part of that glorification which Judas had so de- 
sired to see, and which only began now that he was gone 
to betray his Master to the high priests. Had Judas 
heard those words, they would have seemed to him 
ironical. 

"Little children," said Jesus tenderly to the eleven 
faithful ones, "yet a little while I am with you. Ye 
shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, 
ye cannot come; so now I say to you. 

1 ' A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love 
one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one 
another. 

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, 
if ye have love one to another. ' ' 

Simon Peter said to him: 

"Lord, whither goest thou?" 

"Whither I go," Jesus repeated, "thou canst not 
follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterward." 
Then he added : 

' ' All ye shall be offended because of me this night : for 
it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of 
the flock shall be scattered abroad. 

' ' But after I am risen again, I will go before you into 
Galilee." 

The honest face of Peter was shining with love for his 
Master. He came close to him now, and said : 

' ' Though all men shall be offended because of thee, 
yet will I never be offended. ' ' 



THE LAST SUPPER 341 

"Verily I say unto thee," replied Jesus, "that this 
night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. ' ' 

Peter insisted that though he should die with the 
Master, he would never deny him; and all the others said 
the same. But no man knows what even an hour may bring 
forth, and Peter and his friends could not have imagined 
the trials they would pass through that night — before the 
crowing of the cock in the morning. 

It was on this last evening which Jesus spent with his 
disciples that he established the sacrament which is 
known as the Lord's Supper. Now that he was going 
away from them, he wanted to leave with them some- 
thing, some rite, which they should do in remembrance 
of him — they feeling that he was actually with them in 
the spirit while they were doing it. 

So, while they were still seated round the table, he 
took the bread in his hands, and gave thanks to God, and 
blessed the bread; then he broke it into pieces, and gave 
a morsel to each of the eleven men, saying as he did so: 

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you: 
this do in remembrance of me. ' ' 

Then he took the cup of wine in his hands, and when 
he had given thanks to God and blessed the wine, he 
gave it to them to drink, one after another, saying: 

"This cup is the new testament of my blood, which is 
shed for you. ' ' 

No words could describe the beauty and tenderness of 
Jesus as he gave to his disciples this first sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper. They felt, as the morsel of bread 
touched their lips and as they tasted the flavour of the 
wine, that the Master's body and blood were really min- 
gled with theirs, and that they were thus a part of him 
forever. 

Among those who have followed the religion of Jesus, 



342 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

from that far day until now, this sacrament of the bread 
and the wine has been taken. And those who have 
received it, at the hands of the ministers of Christ, have 
felt, as the eleven disciples felt that night, that they were 
receiving the body and the blood of their Master, which 
were thus mingled with theirs, and which made them one 
with him. Behind this belief in the presence of Christ in 
his sacraments there is a great mystery hidden. 

When Jesus had given this sacrament to his disciples, 
he said to them : 

' ' I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, 
until that day when I shall drink it new with you in my 
Father's kingdom. ' ' 

During all the time that these men had walked with 
Jesus, they had never seen him so beautiful as he was 
this evening — no, not even that night on Mount Hermon, 
when three of them had beheld him transfigured and 
shining with a supernatural light. After he had given 
them the bread and the wine, it seemed to them that he 
became — not less human and loving than before, but more 
transcendently spiritual, more like the presence of God 
Himself among them. His eyes were shining with a 
tenderness that seemed beyond the tenderness of earth, 
and there was a thrilling tone in his voice which made 
their hearts almost stand still to listen. 

Jesus told them not to let their hearts be troubled; 
that in his Father's house were many mansions, and that 
he went to prepare a place for them, that where he was, 
there they might be also. And he said : ' ' Whither I go ye 
know, and the way ye know. ' ' For he had told them so 
many times that he was going to die, and to die by the 
hands of his enemies, that it seemed to him they must 
understand. But Thomas, who always wanted to have 
everything explained to him, now said : 



THE LAST SUPPER 343 

"Lord, we know not whither thou goeet; and how can 
we know the way?" 

Jesus said to them : 

"/ am the way, the truth, and the life: no man 
cometh unto the Father but by me. 

"If ye had known me, ye should have known my 
Father also : and from henceforth ye know him, and have 
seen him." 

For Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that he 
was God, that though he had walked upon the earth as a 
man among men, he and God were one. 

' ' Lord, ' ' said Philip now, ' ' shew us the Father, and 
it sufficeth us. " 

Then the Master asked Philip if he had been so long 
with him, and yet he did not know him? He said that 
whoever had seen him, had seen the Father; that the 
words which he had spoken to them had not been spoken 
of himself, but of the Father; and that the works which 
he had performed were those of God Himself. 

Jesus told them that whoever really believed in him 
should do the same works which he had done — yes, they 
should do even more than he had done, because he had 
gone to his Father. By this Jesus meant that after he 
had ascended into heaven, he could help them more than 
he could on the earth — being nearer to God. This seemed 
very strange and wonderful to the disciples, who listened 
to their Master with shining eyes. And he told them 
that if they should ask anything in his name, he would 
do it for them. Then he added: 

"If ye love me, keep my commandments." 

You will remember the new commandments which 
Jesus had given to his disciples, that they should love 
one another, and should love their neighbours as them- 
selves. 



344 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

These men were very sad at the thought that Jesus 
was going to leave them, even though he was going to 
his Father, whom they had learned to love for his sake. 
But he said to them : 

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to 
you. ' ' 

He said that in a little while the world would see 
him no more; but that his disciples should see him, be- 
cause he would really be living still. And because he 
lived, they should live also. 

Then he told them about the Comforter whom God 
would send to them when he was gone; that this Com- 
forter would be the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth which 
the world cannot receive, because the world cannot see it 
with its material eyes; but that the disciples could see 
the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, for it 
would dwell with them and be in them. 

Jesus said that those who had his commandments and 
kept them, really loved him, and that those who loved 
him should be loved by his Father. Jesus himself would 
love those that were faithful, and would manifest himself 
to them. At that time the disciples did not fully un- 
derstand in what form the Master would return to them ; 
but his words lighted the flame of hope in their hearts, 
that though he was going away, they should somewhere, 
somehow, see him again — before the far-off coming of 
the kingdom of heaven. Yet the faces of the disciples 
were still sad, and Jesus said: 

"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I 
go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." 

It was hard for the eleven men who loved Jesus to 
realise that even God the Father was greater than their 
Master, though they could easily believe that God and Jesus 
were one — because they loved Jesus so much. The idea 



THE LAST SUPPER 345 

of a God made flesh and dwelling among men, charmed 
them as it has since charmed so many other beautiful 
souls. Jesus had said that they could only know the 
Father through him; and because he was so real and so 
sympathetic and so dear to them, they now loved the 
Father because the Father was one with the Son. They 
had heard about Jehovah, the Jewish God, all their lives; 
they had feared and reverenced Him, as the God who 
spoke to Job out of the whirlwind; but until Jesus came 
and told them that he was that God made flesh, they had 
never really loved God. For reverence and fear are not 
the same as love, and that is why Christianity has 
triumphed over Judaism. 

As they looked at the Master now, sitting there before 
them so gentle and so sad, they tried to be glad that he 
was going to his Father — because they felt that he wanted 
so much to go. But they could not be glad, for it did 
not seem as if they could live without him. Knowing 
what was in their hearts, he began to teach them again, 
using one of the beautiful symbols through which he 
could teach them best. He said: 

' ' I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband- 
man. 

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth 
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: 
for without me ye can do nothing. ' ' 

The eyes of the faithful men were full of tears, so 
keenly they felt the truth of what he said — that without 
him they could do nothing. 

"If ye abide in me," said Jesus, "and my words 
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be 
done unto you. ' ' 

At that moment the disciples felt that the only thing 
they wanted, the only thing they desired to ask of God, 



346 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

was that Jesus should remain with them on earth — and 
this they dared not ask. The eyes of every man were fixed 
upon the face of their Master, so that the eleven seemed 
to be one being. Jesus said again: 

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, 
as I have loved you. 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
down his life for his friends. 

"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command 
you. 

' ' Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant 
knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you 
friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father I 
have made known unto you." 

The disciples must suddenly have asked themselves if 
they really remembered all that Jesus had made known 
to them — the things which he had heard of his Father. 
He had taught them so much, and they were ignorant 
men, and had probably written down but few of his say- 
ings. But in the words which he spoke to them next, he 
summed up his whole teaching: 

"These things I command you, that ye love one an- 
other. ' ' 

He had repeated this so often, that it might be im- 
pressed upon their minds. Then he spoke to them again 
about the future, and all they would have to endure for 
his sake and the gospel's. He said: 

' ' They shall put you out of the synagogues : yea, the 
time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that 
he doeth God service. 

1 ' And these things will they do unto you, because they 
have not known the Father, nor me. ' ' 

Though the lips of the disciples were silent, their 
eyes pleaded: 



THE LAST SUPPER 347 

"Master, must you go away from us?" 

" It is expedient for you that I go away, ' ' said Jesus : 
4 ' for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto 
you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. . . . 

"A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, 
a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the 
Father." 

Some of the disciples were puzzled by these words, and 
they asked each other what Jesus meant. They repeated 
his words over to themselves, saying: 

"What is this that he saith unto us, A little while? 
We cannot tell what he saith. ' ' 

For not all the disciples understood the things which 
Jesus had told them that night; but John understood. 

Jesus knew what the puzzled ones wanted to ask him, 
and he said, reading their thoughts: 

"Do ye enquire among yourselves of what I said, A 
little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little 
while, and ye shall see me? 

' ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep 
and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be 
sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned unto joy. . . . 

' ' Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he 
will give it to you. 

' ' Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask, 
and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. . . . 

' ' For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have 
loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. 

"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the 
world : again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. ' ' 

And those who had been puzzled before now said to 
Jesus : 

"Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no 
proverb. Now we are sure that thou knowest all things, 



348 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

and needest not that any man should ask thee : by this we 
believe that thou earnest forth from God. ' ' 

Jesus told them that the hour was come when they 
should be scattered every man to his own, when they 
should leave their Master alone ; but that he would not be 
alone, because the Father was with him. 

Then Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and prayed 
that God would now glorify His Son, that the Son might 
glorify Him. He said to God: "I have finished the work 
which thou gavest me to do. " 

And he prayed for his disciples whom he so much 
loved, saying: "Holy Father, keep through thine own 
name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be 
one, as we are. . . . They are not of the world, even as I 
am not of the world. ... As thou hast sent me into the 
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which 
shall believe on me through their word ; that they all may 
be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also may be one in us . . . 

' ' Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given 
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my 
glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovest me before 
the foundation of the world. ' ' 

And as the Master prayed thus, with his eyes upraised 
to heaven, the disciples also felt their hearts going out to 
the Father whom Jesus loved so much. He was to them 
no longer the Jehovah who spake to Job out of the whirl- 
wind; but He was indeed the loving Father of Jesus, and 
through Jesus of themselves, and of all the world who 
would accept Him as their Father. He was the One who 
desired to dwell in their hearts, who looked out at them 
from the eyes of all other men and women and little 
children. Even those disciples who had been puzzled 



THE LAST SUPPER 349 

before were not puzzled any longer; for at last they under- 
stood. Though a time of forgetfulness was to come to 
them — and in a very little while — at this moment they 
grasped the meaning of what Jesus meant when he said 
' ' My Father. ' ' And as the Master prayed, they lifted their 
eyes to heaven and prayed with him, wordlessly, follow- 
ing his prayer with the assent of their souls. 

This moment was the supreme moment of their lives. 
They had never been so happy before — they would never 
be so happy again. It seemed as if Jesus had caught 
their spirits up in his hands and held them out to his 
Father, as a parting gift from the world before he left it. 

When the prayer was ended, and the eyes of Jesus 
came back from heaven to the faces of his disciples, he 
arose from his seat and beckoned them to follow him to 
the Mount of Olives, where they usually spent the night. 
In silence they passed out of the city of Jerusalem, and 
across the brook Cedron, and into the Garden of Gethsem- 
ane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 

Jesus came into the Garden of Gethsemane with his 
eleven disciples. It was a place which they all knew 
well, for they had often been there with the Master. 
Judas also knew the garden. 

As they passed into the shadow of the olive-trees, the 
peace which had shone in the Master's face during the 
last supper vanished from him, and he was very sad. He 
took Peter and James and John with him, and leaving 
the other eight men behind, he said to them : 

' ' Sit ye here, while I shall pray. ' ' 

Then with the three he went a little way off, and they 
saw that he was heavy-hearted. His step had lost all its 
lightness, and when he spoke to them, his voice seemed 
to come from a long distance. He said: 

' ' My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death : tarry ye 
here, and watch with me. ' ' 

Then he went about a stone's throw away from the 
men, and fell on his face on the ground. And he prayed 
to God that if it were possible, the terrible things 
which he foresaw for the next few hours might pass over 
him, so that he would not be obliged to suffer them. For 
Jesus knew that the time was now come when the Son of 
man would have to endure all the sufferings which the 
old prophets had foretold for him; that he would be be- 
trayed, and buffeted, and spit upon, and killed by his 
enemies. 

351 



352 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

' ' Abba, Father, ' ' he prayed, ' ' all things are possible 
unto thee ; take away this cup from me : nevertheless not 
what I will, but what thou wilt. " 

He could not lie there long, he could not pray long, 
for he was restless and tortured 1 -in spirit. He felt ter- 
ribly alone now, even when praying to the Father, and he 
yearned for the companionship and comfort of his dearest 
friends. Rising to his feet, he went back to the place 
where he had left them — but Peter and James and John 
were sound asleep ! He was astonished. How could they 
sleep, knowing that this was his hour of anguish? Did 
they not love him, after all? And he awoke them, saying 
to Peter: 

"Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch with 
me one hour?" 

The disciples were ashamed. They sat up and rubbed 
their heavy eyes, staring at the Master, as he stood there 
so tall and melancholy in the starlight. They were so 
drowsy that his words made little impression on them at 
the moment, though they remembered them afterward 
with bitter sorrow. Jesus said: 

"Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. 
The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. ' ' 

Truly, indeed, was the spirit of Jesus ready to do all 
that God demanded; but he was a man still, and he 
shrank with human sensitiveness from the physical suffer- 
ing that was in store for him. It is, perhaps, the human 
suffering of Jesus which has most endeared him to man- 
kind. Had he not suffered, they could not have realised 
him as that intimate and human friend — the God made 
flesh. 

Leaving his three disciples to watch with him once 
more, Jesus went back to the place where he had prayed. 
And throwing himself again upon the ground, he turned 



THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 353 

a second time to his Father in heaven — the God who had 
given his beloved son a task so hard. And he prayed 
again, as before, though with even greater intensity : 

' ' my Father, if this cup may not pass away from 
me, except I drink it, thy will be done. ' ' 

During the centuries since that time, the men and 
women who have tried to follow Jesus have repeated those 
words when they were in trouble. Of all the sayings of 
the Master, that is the hardest to repeat sincerely: 
"Father, thy will be done." We say it in the Lord's 
Prayer; but few have grasped its meaning, and fewer 
still have really meant it when they spoke the words. 
But Jesus could say it with sincerity and with full knowl- 
edge of its import, even when it led him to the greatest 
suffering of which the human being is capable — both of 
the body and the mind. 

When he had thus prayed again to his Father, repeat- 
ing ' ' Thy will be done, ' ' he went back to the three men 
whom he had left under the olive-trees. Surely this time 
they would have watched with him and prayed. 

But when he came to the place, instead of finding the 
three in prayer, he saw them again extended upon the 
ground — sound asleep. Whether or not their spirits 
were ready, surely their flesh was weak. 

When he awakened them a second time, they knew 
not what to say to him. They had meant to watch and 
to pray that God would keep them from temptation; but 
the hour was late, and they were tired. Before they had 
realised it, their heads had fallen upon their breasts, the 
whispering of the wind through the trees had seemed a 
lullaby, and they had sunk upon the ground in a deep 
sleep. Whether or not they dreamed, we do not know; 
but when they heard the voice of Jesus calling them 
again, they sat up and gazed at him in shame and confu- 



354 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

sion. Perhaps God permitted them to sleep, that Jesus 
might learn that in the hour of sorrow there is no real 
comforter except God. Every soul in deep trouble has to 
learn that lesson. 

Jesus left Peter and James and John, and went away 
the third time. He was more sorrowful than ever, for 
now he knew that he was utterly alone — save for the 
Father. And he realised that every other soul, in its last 
depth of pain, is also alone with God. The grief of all 
the world rolled over him in a great flood, as he lay there 
on the cold ground. He was going to die in order to 
show the world where comfort might be found — but 
would the world seek that comfort? If even his own dis- 
ciples could not watch with him in this hour of his trial, 
what hope was there for lesser men? He was now resigned 
to death ; but one who loved humanity as Jesus loved it 
could not be resigned to the pain of humanity. 

What Jesus endured during that last prayer is too ter- 
rible to write — almost too terrible to think. It is possible 
that he suffered more in that hour alone than he suffered 
the following day upon the cross. We are told that in 
his agony he prayed more earnestly than before, and that 
his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down 
to the ground. Words cannot express such grief, nor can 
the mind of a young person imagine it, nor his heart en- 
dure it. 

But when the anguish of Jesus was deepest, there 
appeared to him an angel from heaven, giving him 
strength. Was it the same angel that had come to Mary 
the Virgin, in her little room that night so long ago, to 
tell her that she had been chosen by God to be the mother 
of the future Christ? Or was it the great angel Raphael, 
who is said to be full of pity for the world? We do not 
know. Men like to think of that angel hovering over 



THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 355 

Jesus; and many of the world's great painters have tried 
to picture him, wiping away the tears from the Master's 
eyes, and soothing him with tender sympathy. Only an 
angel could understand Jesus. The heavenly visitor did 
not leave him until he had conquered his human shrink- 
ing from a death of pain, and had risen above his grief 
at the betrayal of Judas, and had left in the care of God 
the woes of that humanity with which he had lived for 
more than thirty years. 

When Jesus arose from the ground the third time, he 
was strong. The Messiah was ready for his glorification 
by death, at the hands of those Jews whom he had sought 
to bring to a knowledge of God. Perhaps, as he had lain 
there on the ground before the appearance of the angel, he 
had had a sudden and terrible vision of the future. Per- 
haps he had seen the crimes which would be committed in 
the name of that religion he had founded; how men 
would misunderstand his teaching ; how they would turn 
the living faith which he had tried to give them into the 
formal dead letter of a creed almost as cold as that of the 
Jews. But with the coming of the angel, and with the 
heavenly strength the angel brought him, he could now 
rise above everything — until death should give him 
freedom. 

When he came back the third time to his tired 
friends, he no longer thought of himself at all; he only 
thought with pity of their weakness, and of all they would 
have to suffer during the coming hours, and ever thereafter 
in memory. And he said to Peter and James and John : 

"Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the 
hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the 
hands of sinners. ' ' 

But there was to be no sleep for the disciples that 
night. After a moment, Jesus spoke again : 



356 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at 
hand." 

Even with the words, they heard a sound of footsteps, 
a murmur of voices, a clanking of weapons. Looking in 
the direction from which the sounds came, they saw the 
flickering lights of many lanterns, moving over the 
ground in a wide, irregular semicircle, as if those who 
bore them were searching for something. 

The three disciples leaped to their feet, and the other 
eight, who had been a short distance away, came running. 
They had been awakened from sleep by the sound of the 
approaching multitude. 

As the crowd of men came closer, by the light of the 
stars and of the lanterns, the disciples could see that 
most of them were ruffians. They had swords and staves 
in their hands, and they had come from the chief priests 
and the scribes and the elders. But who was that at 
their head — the man who seemed to be leading them? 
The faithful disciples were amazed when they saw Judas 
Iscariot. His face was terrible in the starlight, for there 
was on it a strange expression — half triumph, half flicker- 
ing shame. He turned away a moment, and those who 
were nearest heard him say to the men behind him : 

"Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, 
and lead him away safely. ' ' 

The crowd surrounded the place where Jesus stood 
with his friends. It would have been impossible for 
him to escape without violence, even had he wished to 
escape. 

In the uncertain light, the ruffians peered into one 
face and another, not knowing which of the men was the 
Master from Nazareth. But Judas went boldly up to 
Jesus and kissed him, saying in a loud voice which could 
be heard by the whole crowd : 



THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 357 

"Master, Master!" 

"Judas," said Jesus, "betrayest thou the Son of man 
with a kiss?" 

The look of mingled love and reproach in the Master's 
eyes was more than the faithless disciple could bear. He 
drew back, and hid himself behind his followers. At 
that moment Jesus was very strong. 

"Whom seek ye?" he said, turning to the men from 
Jerusalem, who now pressed closer around him. 

"Jesus of Nazareth," replied a dozen voices, hoarse 
with excitement. 

"I am he," said the Master, quietly. 

To the disciples who stood by, it seemed that his 
whole person expanded, that a strange power went out 
from him; and John says that the men who were near 
Jesus sank backward and fell upon the ground. 

"Whom seek ye?" he asked, a second time. 

"Jesus of Nazareth," they answered. 

"I have told you that I am he," said Jesus. "If 
therefore ye seek me, let these go their way. ' ' 

He made a motion toward his disciples, meaning that 
the ruffians were to take him only, and let his friends go 
free. But they did not want his friends — they only 
wanted him. The disciples saw this, and when they 
realised that the crowd meant violence to their Master, 
they said to him : 

"Lord, shall we smite with the sword?" For the men 
from Galilee had two swords with them. 

We do not know what answer Jesus made, if he made 
any; for at that moment the rough men laid hands upon 
him. 

This was too much for Peter to endure. He drew his 
sword and smote a servant of the high priest, named 
Malchus, and cut off his right ear. 



358 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Jesus placed his hand upon the servant's wound and 
healed it. Then he said to Peter : 

' ' Put up again thy sword into his place : for all they 
that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 

' ' Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, 
and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions 
of angels? 

"But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that 
thus he must die." 

Peter put away his sword, as the Master had com- 
manded him. 

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the captains of 
the Temple and the elders, who had also come with 
Judas and the brutal crowd : 

"Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and 
with staves to take me? When I was daily with you in 
the Temple, ye stretched forth no hand against me: but 
this is your hour, and the power of darkness." 

For reply, the ruffians bound Jesus, and took him. 

When the disciples saw their Master thus, bound like 
any malefactor and helpless in the hands of his enemies, 
their courage vanished. It seemed to them that their 
hearts were broken; but the more faithful of them did 
not know that what they were yet to suffer would make 
their present trouble seem as nothing. Casting a last 
despairing glance at Jesus, they turned and fled, pushing 
their way through the crowd which made no effort to 
detain them. Where did they go? We do not know, 
save for two of them, Peter and John, who followed after 
their Master — but not too near. 

As Jesus was hustled along toward Jerusalem in the 
midst of this ruffianly multitude, there also followed 
after him a certain young man dressed only in a linen 
cloth, thrown hastily around his body, as if he had 



THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 359 

arisen in the night and sought Jesus — perhaps to warn 
him. We do not know the young man's name, but many- 
have believed that it was Luke, the physician, who after- 
ward was numbered among the apostles. 

The ruffians, not knowing who the young man was or 
what he wanted, laid hold upon him, catching in their 
hands the linen cloth which was his only garment. But 
he pulled himself away from them, leaving only the linen 
cloth in their grasp, and fled away into the darkness of 
the night. And the crowd, with Jesus in their midst, 
hurried on toward Jerusalem. 

Where Judas was now, we do not know. He had 
done his work, he had won his reward of thirty pieces of 
silver — the price of the Messiah of the Jews in the 
priestly market of Jerusalem. The feelings of Judas at 
this hour are almost unimaginable. Was he still follow- 
ing behind the crowd, his treachery and disgrace hidden 
among the shadows of the night? We know that he did 
not meet any of the other disciples, or they would have 
told us so % It is more likely that he plunged away alone 
into the darkness, trying to elude even the glances of the 
stars, which are very clear in the country of Palestine, 
and which must have pierced his soul with their coldly 
critical regard. Judging by what he did in the morning, 
we may believe that he wandered about all night, sleep- 
less, tortured, perhaps even praying to the God whom he 
had outraged, that he would save Jesus from the cruelty of 
the Jews. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 

When Peter and John saw Jesus in the hands of that 
band of ruffians in the Garden of Gethsemane, they knew 
not what to do. Why did he not manifest his power? 
they asked each other. Why did he not call upon God 
to free him? Surely the Father would come to the rescue 
of the Son? All the other disciples had fled — John did 
not even know where his brother James had gone. 

They could see, in the distance ahead of them, the 
nickering lights of the lanterns which the ruffians car- 
ried ; they heard now and then a sharp voice which seemed 
to give commands, and once or twice the strains of a 
ribald song, for there were soldiers in the crowd. Where 
were they going? What would they do to the Master? 
Though Peter and John kept well behind, out of sight, 
yet they were near enough to see and to follow the throng. 
This was easy, for it was so late at night that the country 
roads were quite deserted, and even when they entered the 
city of Jerusalem they met almost no one. 

As the crowd ahead made a sharp turn, John said to 
Peter: 

' ' Look, they are taking Jesus to the house of Annas ! ' ' 

You will remember that Annas was the old high 

priest, the predecessor and father-in-law of Caiaphas ; and 

though he was no longer in authority, yet his influence 

among the Jews was even stronger than that of the pres- 

361 



362 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ent high priest. John shuddered when he thought of his 
Master at the mercy of that old bigot. 

The two men saw Jesus taken into the house of Annas. 
They waited in the street opposite, hiding in a doorway. 
But they did not have to wait long, for after a few min- 
utes the door of the house of Annas opened again, and 
they saw Jesus pass out over the threshold, between two 
of the high priest's servants. His hands were bound, as 
if he had been a thief; and as the light from the lantern 
hung over the doorway fell upon his face, the two disci- 
ples clutched each other, with pity for their Master. 
How white and sad he was ! They longed to throw them- 
selves at his feet — but they dared not show their faces. 
All the courage was gone out of them. They did not 
even know what hour of the night it was, for the snatches 
of troubled sleep which they had taken in the garden 
while Jesus prayed had confused their minds. They 
seemed to be walking in a nightmare where everything 
was unreal, especially the white face of the Master. 

They dared not even whisper to each other, for they 
were too near the crowd. Their hearts beat so loud that 
it seemed as if their enemies must hear them ; and when 
the throng started down the street, they came so near to 
the doorway in which Peter and John were hidden that 
they nearly touched them in passing. 

Following the crowd again, the two disciples came to 
the palace of the high priest Caiaphas. There they saw 
Jesus disappear into the palace, with those highest in 
authority and with the servants of the high priests. 

Now John was the only one of the disciples (except 
Judas) who was known to the high priest and his house- 
hold, and when he came to the palace of Caiaphas he 
went in, after his Master, leaving Peter outside the door. 
But he could not follow Jesus any farther than the main 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 363 

hall, for Jesus had been taken to the council-chamber, 
and John was left with the officers and the servants of the 
household. 

Then he went out to the woman-servant who kept the 
door, and asked if he might bring in his friend, and the 
girl let Peter come in with John. 

Peter was troubled by the way in which this damsel 
looked at him. She was a very smart maid, being door- 
keeper of the high priest, and she spoke in a supercilious 
way of Jesus. Even the women-servants of the high 
priest assumed an air of superiority over other mortals, 
especially when their master was not present. Peter, a 
simple Galilean, felt embarrassed in the presence of this 
smartly attired domestic. Suddenly she turned to him, 
saying: 

"Art thou not one of this man's disciples?" Her 
tone, when she spoke of Jesus as "this man," was offen- 
sive in the extreme. 

Now Peter was overwrought with anxiety for both his 
Master and himself, and he did not know what was going 
to happen next. He felt that at any moment he and 
John might also be bound, like Jesus, and taken into that 
terrible council-chamber. 

So, when the maid-servant of the high priest, with her 
superior tone, asked him if he were not also a disciple of 
' ' this man, ' ' Peter answered : 

' ' I am not. ' ' 

The other servants and officers who stood there in the 
hall had made a fire of coals, for the night was cold. 
And as they warmed themselves around the fire, Peter 
came and stood with them, warming himself. The 
servants all stared at him; and another maid, in appear- 
ance much like the smart doorkeeper, now said to Peter: 

"Art thou not also one of his disciples?" 



364 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"I am not," answered Peter, sullenly, a second time 
denying his Master. 

Then one of the men-servants of the high priest, a 
kinsman of that Malchus whose ear Peter had cut off with 
his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane, said to the 
unhappy disciple: 

"Did I not see thee in the garden with him?" 

And another said : ' ' Surely thou art one of them, for 
thy speech betray eth thee." 

This made Peter angry, for he was very sensitive 
about his Galilean accent, which had been much laughed 
at in Jerusalem. And he began to curse and to swear, 
saying: 

" I know not the man.'''' 

Immediately the cock crowed, for it was nearly morn- 
ing. 

When Peter heard the crowing of the cock, he started 
as if some one had struck him, for he remembered the 
words which Jesus had said : ' ' Before the cock crow, thou 
shalt deny me thrice. ' ' Leaving John and the servants 
and officers still standing around the fire, he went out of 
doors alone in the grey dawn and wept bitterly. 

Peter had not meant to deny the Master ; he told him- 
self now that he would gladly die for Jesus ; but the con- 
temptuous tone of the pretty maid-servant as she had 
said "this man," and the general air of cynical superior- 
ity in the hall of the high priest's palace, and especially 
that reference to his Galilean accent, had been too much 
for Peter's loyalty. Not even the presence of John had 
kept him from denying that he was a disciple of Jesus. 
He wondered now what his fellow-disciple thought of 
him! 

The Bible does not tell us whether or not John came 
out to Peter and comforted him ; but we like to think that 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 365 

he did. Peter never denied his momentary disloyalty. 
In after years he frankly confessed it — confessed that he, 
whom Jesus had called the foundation-stone of his 
church, had, in the hour of temptation, forgotten his 
Master's trust. For a moment, alone there in the grey 
dawn, it must have seemed to Peter himself that he was 
almost as false as Judas. It was a bitter hour for him. 
When he realised what he had done, a terrible desire to 
see Jesus rushed over him. He wondered what they were 
doing to the Master in that council-room, whither he 
could not go? 

When Jesus had gone into the council-chamber, he 
had found assembled there the priests and scribes and 
elders, with Caiaphas. At last the time had come for 
which the high priest had schemed and worked, and for 
which he had also bribed Judas Iscariot for the sake of 
the little help that he could give. The high priest now 
had Jesus in his power. 

You must understand that, although the Jews were 
not rulers in their own land which was under the sway of 
the Romans, in all matters of strictly religious import 
the Romans did not interfere with the authority of the 
high priests. To have done so would have provoked riots 
and revolutions. This policy is still adopted by all 
European empires in dealing with those oriental races 
which are under their rule. The Jewish high priests had 
not the legal right to carry out a sentence of death; but 
if, in solemn council, they pronounced a man guilty of 
blasphemy against the Jewish religion, which blasphemy 
was punishable by death according to the Jewish law, the 
Roman authorities would carry out the sentence. 

Having failed to entangle Jesus with the Roman 
authorities that time in the Temple, when they had ques- 



366 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

tioned him as to whether it was lawful to give tribute to 
Csesar, their only hope was to pronounce him guilty of 
blasphemy against the Jewish faith, and then to hand him 
over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, with a de- 
mand that he be executed. To this end they were now 
provided with false witnesses, who were ready to swear to 
anything, no matter how absurd, which would cause Jesus 
to be condemned for blasphemy. 

Let us look into that council-chamber in the high 
priest's palace — which the two disciples could not enter. 

This Jewish council of priests, scribes, and elders was 
called the sanhedrim. It was the Supreme Court of the 
Jews. The members, who were many, satin a wide semi- 
circle, with the high priest Caiaphas — president of the 
sanhedrim — in the centre of the curve. Opposite Caia- 
phas, at a little distance, stood the accused man Jesus, 
bound and at the mercy of his questioners, all of whom 
were determined to condemn him. 

It was still some time before daylight, and the large 
room was lighted by lamps. The face of every member 
of the sanhedrim was set in rigid lines, while his eyes 
blazed with determination to wreak vengeance at last upon 
the daring Galilean who had called them hypocrites and 
perverters of the law. 

The high priest began by questioning Jesus in regard 
to his doctrines and his disciples. What had he taught 
the people? Caiaphas asked, and what secret doctrine 
had he taught to his own friends? 

"I spake openly to the world," Jesus answered; "I 
ever taught in the synagogues, and in the temple, whither 
the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. 
Why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me, what 
I have said unto them : behold they know what I said. ' ' 

Jesus had spoken gently; yet one of the officers of the 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 367 

Temple who stood by, struck him with the palm of his 
hand, saying roughly: 

"Answerest thou the high priest so?" 

"If I have spoken evil," replied Jesus, with great 
dignity, "bear witness of the evil; but if well, why 
smitest thou me?" 

It was then that they called the false witnesses ; but 
though many testified against him, there was nothing in 
what they said which could prove Jesus worthy of death, 
even under the rigid Jewish law. But at last they found 
two witnesses who declared : 

"This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of 
God, and to build it in three days." 

The high priest arose in his seat, in the middle of the 
semicircle. He looked very tall and powerful, and the 
lamps cast a pale yellow light over his face, making him 
look like a statue cut in ivory. The assembled elders and 
scribes and priests gazed at Caiaphas with admiration, 
as he stood there looking so tall and judicial. 

"Answerest thou nothing?" said Caiaphas to Jesus, 
when the witnesses had testified. "What is this, which 
these witness against thee?" 

But Jesus would not reply; because, as has been so 
well said, a lie that is half the truth is ever the meanest 
of lies, and when the Master had declared that he could 
rebuild the temple of God in three days, he had referred 
to the temple of his body — the dwelling-place of the Most 
High. 

When the high priest saw that Jesus would make no 
answer to this insincere accusation, he said to him : 

"I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us 
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. ' ' 

"Thou hast said," replied Jesus, looking Caiaphas 
full in the face. "Nevertheless I say unto thee, Here- 



368 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

after shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand 
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. ' ' 

When the high priest heard the answer of Jesus, he 
rent his garment, which was a sign among the Jews when 
something was too terrible to be endured. And he cried 
to the assembled members of the sanhedrim : 

' ' He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need have 
we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blas- 
phemy. ' ' 

It seems strange to us that the Jews, who had been 
waiting so long for their Messiah, should declare that 
Messiah guilty of blasphemy against the Jewish religion 
when he implied that he was the Son of man, a name 
they had for the Redeemer for whom they pretended — and 
possibly believed — that they were waiting. But such was 
the way of the Jewish hierarchy. 

"What think ye?" cried the high priest now, looking 
at the assembled company. And as with one voice these 
cruel councillors answered: 

"He is guilty of death. ' ' 

Then all their long-controlled malice was let loose. 
Their anger and hatred of Jesus, which had made them 
wretched for months whenever they had thought of him 
and of his noble arraignment of their own hypocrisy, now 
found a vent. Some of them even went up and spat in the 
face of the Master, as he stood there alone and quiet and 
dignified in the midst of his powerful enemies. Others 
pushed him back and forth, and still others held a scarf 
over his eyes, while their neighbours struck him with their 
hands, saying mockingly: 

' ' Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who was it that smote 
thee?" 

If they had done nothing worse to Jesus, the shame 
of that scene in the council-chamber of the high priest, 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 369 

where the most dignified men of the nation did and per- 
mitted such things, would be a blot upon the Jewish race 
forever. But these insults and blows were but the com- 
mencement of what the priests and scribes and elders in- 
tended to do with Jesus, the gentle Master from Galilee, 
whose new law was that men should love one another; 
whose crime was that men loved him better than they 
loved the high priests; whose blasphemy was that he 
called himself the Son of man. 

Having convicted him of that blasphemy, according 
to their law, they prepared to conduct him to the Roman 
governor, Pontius Pilate, whom they believed (for polit- 
ical reasons) that they could mould to their cruel will. 
The whole company of priests and scribes and elders, with 
Jesus bound in their midst, left the palace of the high 
priest, and sought the judgment hall of Pontius Pilate. 
It was now day, and they exchanged the lamplight of the 
council-chamber for the light of the morning sun in the 
streets of Jerusalem. 

It was at this time that a terrible thing happened. 
As it was still too early in the morning to see Pontius 
Pilate at the governor's hall of judgment, the priests and 
elders must have stopped for a few minutes in the Temple, 
leaving Jesus bound in the hands of the soldiers. 

Judas Iscariot came to the Temple. He had been 
wandering about all night, and now, with the coming of 
the daylight, he returned to the scene of his treachery. 
Judas had seen Jesus standing bound in the custody of 
the soldiers, and he now learned that his former Master 
had been condemned to death by the sanhedrim. The false 
disciple was on the verge of madness. That sight of the 
Master, alone with the insolent servants of those enemies 
who had condemned him to death, was too much for the 
faithless friend who had once loved him. For Judas had 



370 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

seen other Roman executions in Judsea, and he knew what 
was in store for Jesus. 

Trembling in every limb, his face livid with grief and 
terror at the part which he himself had played in this 
tragedy, Judas sought out the chief priests and elders as 
they waited there in the Temple. And he tried to return 
to them the thirty pieces of silver, the price of his own 
perfidy, saying in a voice hoarse with horror: 

' ' I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent 
blood." 

But the rich priests hardly deigned to look at the pal- 
try sum of money which had been the price of Judas 's 
dishonour. They were too much absorbed in what they 
had still to do at the hall of judgment, to give more than 
a passing glance at this cheap tool which they had used 
and thrown away. And when Judas declared his peni- 
tence, they merely shrugged their shoulders, saying care- 



' ' What is that to us? See thou to that. ' ' 
Then Judas, when he realised that they would not take 
back the money, flung it down on the pavement of the 
Temple ; and he went out again into the streets of Jerusa- 
lem, which would be horrible to him forevermore. 

The voice of Jesus rang in his ears, as he had heard it 
the night before when he had kissed the Master: "Judas, 
betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" He knew 
that he would hear that voice until his death ; knew that he 
would have before his eyes as long as he lived, the sad 
and loving and reproachful eyes of Jesus, as he had seen 
them the night before in the light of the lanterns, and as 
he had seen them again this morning, when the Master 
stood bound and condemned in the hands of the soldiers 
who would soon lead him to his death. And the heart of 
Judas broke. 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 371 

He could no longer endure his life. His only ques- 
tion was — how he could quickest die. He found a rope, 
and hurried with it to a lonely place that he knew just 
outside the city. And there he hanged himself. 

The false disciple had gone by his own act to the 
judgment of the God whom he had outraged. This 
terrible thing took place while Jesus was waiting to be 
conducted to the hall of Pontius Pilate, so that the 
treacherous disciple found death before his Master found 
it. It was a da^ of death. 

When Jesus with his enemies came to the Roman hall 
of judgment, the Jews would not go in. To have done 
so, would have made them unclean and unable to celebrate 
the feast of the Passover — according to their law. 

So Pontius Pilate, the governor, came outside the hall 
and talked with the Jews in the open air. When he saw 
Jesus bound, and standing before him, he was surprised 
that a man with such a gentle and beautiful face should 
be brought to him as a malefactor. And he said to the 
priests, the scribes and the elders: 

"What accusation bring ye against this man?" 

"If he were not a malefactor," they answered, "we 
would not have delivered him up unto thee. ' ' 

Then they began to accuse Jesus before the Roman 
governor, saying: 

' ' We found this fellow perverting the nation, and for- 
bidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is 
Christ a King. ' ' 

Pilate was annoyed at being called upon to mix him- 
self in the affair. He had already heard of Jesus ; and if, 
as was asserted, the young Master had by his teaching 
weakened the hold of the Jewish law upon the people, so 
much the better for the Roman authorities. For the Jew- 



372 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ish law, with its bigotry and minute distinctions, was a 
never-ending source of perplexity to the Roman governor. 
Pilate himself had failed in his attempt to understand 
these people whom he had been sent to govern, and it 
seemed to him that they were always trying to involve him 
in needless trouble, and to entangle him in their tiresome 
quarrels. So now, when they accused Jesus of seeking to 
pervert the nation, and turned him over to Pilate to be 
punished, the governor said to them, impatiently : 

"Take ye him, and judge him according to your 
law." 

But Jesus had already been judged according to the 
law of the sanhedrim, and had been pronounced a blas- 
phemer worthy of death. And the priests and elders now 
persisted in their demand that Pilate should take a hand 
in the affair; for, as they said to him: 

"It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. ' ' 

Pilate went back into the hall of judgment, and gave 
orders that Jesus should be brought to him there. The 
two were now face to face, the portly and overfed Roman 
governor, weary of his duties in Jerusalem among a 
people who hated him, and the slender young Galilean 
prophet, with the refined and sweet face — so different to 
the mass of his countrymen. The quiet manners of Jesus 
made a deep impression upon Pilate, who was accustomed 
to deal with the talkative and ever- wrangling Jews. He 
looked at Jesus long and steadily, wondering what he 
should do with him. Finally he said — being obliged to 
say something: 

"Art thou the King of the Jews?" 

Jesus answered: 

"Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell 
it thee of me?" 

Pilate was offended by this reply of Jesus, offended 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 373 

that a Jewish prophet should assume that he took suffi- 
cient interest in the aspirations of this people to have an 
idea of his own about one of them. And he said to 
Jesus : 

"Am I a Jew?" which was the same as saying, "What 
do I know about your petty quarrels?" And he contin- 
ued: "Thine own nation and the chief priests have de- 
livered thee unto me: What hast thou done?" 

"My kingdom is not of this world," said Jesus, 
answering Pilate's first question as to whether he was the 
King of the Jews. "If my kingdom were of this world, 
then would my servants fight, that I should not be de- 
livered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from 
hence. ' ' 

"Art thou a king then?" asked Pilate. He was be- 
coming more and more interested in this unusual prisoner, 
who was charged with making himself out a king. Surely 
he looked like one. 

"Thou sayest that I am a king," replied Jesus. "To 
this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the 
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every 
one that is of the truth heareth my voice. ' ' 

"What is truth?" asked Pilate, with a touch of phil- 
osophic pride. He was weary of the Greek philosophers 
and their jargon, as he called it, and here was a Jew using 
the same abstract terms, which to the skeptical Roman 
had no meaning. Jesus now appeared to him as a harm- 
less dreamer, and he was less inclined than ever to do 
him harm. He went out again to the Jews, and said to 
them: 

"I find in him no fault at all. " 

But the priests and scribes and elders were more fierce 
than ever, for they saw that Pilate was not willing to lend 
himself to their scheme. Without his consent they could 



374 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

do nothing. And they now began to arraign Jesus more 
severely, saying: 

"He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all 
Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. " 

"Is the man a Galilean?" asked Pilate, eagerly. An 
idea had occurred to him by which he might escape this 
troublesome business. 

"He is of Galilee," replied the Jews. 

Then Pilate left them, and going back to Jesus in the 
judgment hall, he gave orders that the prisoner should be 
conducted to Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee, who was in 
Jerusalem at that time. When Pilate saw Jesus led 
away, he breathed a sigh of relief. He did not know how 
soon he should see him again. 

Now Herod was very glad when he heard that Jesus 
had been sent to him for judgment, for he had long de- 
sired to see him. The rumours of the miracles performed 
by the Galilean had appealed to his vivid imagination. 
When Jesus was brought before Herod, the Tetrarch asked 
him many questions touching his miraculous works and 
his teaching. But Jesus would answer nothing; for he 
knew that all this formality of questioning, all this send- 
ing of him from one tribunal to another, was a mere 
mockery. He had been condemned by the sanhedrim, the 
members of which would manage, somehow, to have their 
sentence of death carried out. And Jesus was already 
very weary. 

He longed for the death which was now certain, he 
longed to be at rest in the bosom of the Father whom he 
loved. 

As Jesus stood there before Herod, the priests and 
scribes who had followed him to the palace vehemently 
accused him, charging him again with seeking to pervert 
the nation, and with stirring up revolt against the pay- 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 375 

ment of tribute to Caesar. For the Jews now realised that 
their only hope of getting Jesus killed was by making out 
that he was a danger to the authorities. 

But Herod refused to take them seriously. And he 
did not take Jesus seriously, either. Was this gentle-faced 
Galilean, who made no answer either to the questions of 
the Tetrarch nor to the accusations of the priests, really 
the man about whom so much noise had been made? It 
seemed preposterous. If Jesus had brought a brazen ser- 
pent to life, or had caused roses to spring out of the 
marble pavement of the palace, it might have made some 
impression upon this superstitious and degenerate de- 
scendant of the Herods. But a man who merely stood in 
silence before his accusers, a miracle-worker who did not 
even try to unbind his own hands — what folly was this ! 
So thought the Tetrarch, to whose unsteady shoulder 
Pontius Pilate had sought to shift his burden of judgment. 

And Herod and his men of war mocked Jesus. And 
arraying him in a gorgeous robe, befitting his title of 
King of the Jews, the Tetrarch sent him back to Pilate. 

When the Roman governor heard that Jesus was again 
in the judgment hall, he knew not what to do. As he 
was considering the matter, and had sat down again upon 
the judgment seat, his wife sent a messenger to him, 
saying: 

1 ' Have thou nothing to do with that just man : for I 
have suffered many things this day in a dream because of 
him." 

This message increased the anxiety of Pilate ; for, like 
many men, he knew that women are sometimes gifted 
with an intuition more true and subtle than the cold 
judgment of their brothers. 

There was only one expedient he could think of, and 
he now determined to try it. It was the custom of the 



376 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Roman authorities in Judaea, at the annual feast of the 
Passover, to seek the good will of the Jews by releasing 
some Jewish prisoner whom the Jews themselves should 
select, as a kind of peace offering in honour of the sacred 
season. He would offer to release Jesus. And going out 
again to the assembled people, he said to them : 

' ' Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that per- 
verteth the people; and, behold, I, having examined him 
before you, have found no fault in this man touching 
those things whereof ye accuse him. 

"No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him, and, lo, 
nothing worthy of death is done unto him. 

' ' I will therefore chastise him, and release him. Ye 
have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the 
Passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the 
King of the Jews?" 

But the priests and scribes and elders were not to be 
baulked in this way. It seemed to them that Pilate 
mocked at them, for they could not know that he was sick 
at heart. And they protested violently at the suggestion, 
crying: 

' ' Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas. ' ' 

Now Barabbas was a Jew who had been cast into prison 
by the Romans for causing a real sedition in the city, 
which had resulted in murder. Barabbas was very popu- 
lar among the Jews, who, like most subject races, were 
nearly all seditious in their hearts, whatever concessions 
to the power of their conquerors their judgment or their 
fear might dictate. Pilate now sought to appease the 
Jews by promising to release Barabbas in honour of the 
Passover. Then he spoke again of Jesus ; but they only 
cried, louder than before : 

' ' Crucify him ! Crucify him ! ' ' 

"Why, what evil hath he done?" demanded Pilate, 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 377 

for the third time. ' ' I have found no cause of death in 
him: I will therefore chastise him and let him go." 

But again the terrible cry, ' ' Crucify him ! Crucify 
him!" arose from a hundred throats. And looking down 
from his high place above the crowd, the Roman governor 
saw a tossing sea of upturned human faces — a sea whose 
every little wave seemed to be a dark eye blazing with the 
light of hatred. 

The perplexity of Pilate increased. Jesus was falsely 
charged with calling himself "King of the Jews"; and 
for the Roman governor to show favour to one who bore 
such a title in Caesar's dominions, might compromise him- 
self. Already some of the acts of Pilate in Judsea had 
been severely criticised in Rome. 

Partly to gain time, we suppose, and in order to evade 
if possible the demand of the Jews that the Galilean be 
crucified, Pilate commanded that Jesus should be scourged, 
and to that end he turned him over to the ruffianly sol- 
diers under his command. 

The scene that followed was revolting beyond descrip- 
tion. The very thought of it has, for nearly nineteen hun- 
dred years, aroused the wrath of the world against the 
Jews who caused it, and against Pilate who permitted it. 
The ribald Roman soldiers cruelly whipped Jesus. Then 
they platted a crown of thorns and put the torturing 
thing upon his head ; they dressed him in a purple robe, 
and put a reed in his hand for a sceptre — to ridicule his 
title of King of the Jews. And as the soldiers filed past 
him, they struck him and spit upon him, crying mock- 
ingly: 

"Hail, King of the Jews! Hail, King of the Jews!" 

Then Pilate again brought Jesus to the open-air tri- 
bunal, before the Jews who were still assembled outside 
the judgment-hall. He was dressed in the purple robe 



378 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

and the crown of thorns, and on his pallid face were drops 
of blood. Not a word he uttered now, and his look of re- 
signed dignity in suffering only made the Jews more de- 
termined that he should die. 

"Behold the man!" cried Pontius Pilate, his voice 
hoarse with emotion and with anger at these terrible 
people whom he had been sent to govern, but who seemed 
now to be governing him. 

' ' Crucify him ! Crucify Mm /" The cry came from all 
directions, for besides the priests and the scribes and the 
elders, there were many others in that throng who had 
resented the name of hypocrite which Jesus had bestowed 
on them. 

Pilate was now thoroughly excited. He cried to the 
Jews below: 

"Take ye him, and crucify him yourselves; for I find 
no fault in him. ' ' 

The Jews answered, implacably : 

' ' We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, be- 
cause he made himself the Son of God. ' ' 

When Pilate heard those words he was more afraid 
than ever. There was certainly something godlike about 
this man, who had not even cried out under the lashes of 
the soldiers, and who now stood in that crown of thorns 
and that burlesque purple robe, as if he bore indeed the 
royal title with which they mocked him. And Pilate 
went back still another time into the judgment-hall, and 
called Jesus to him. 

"Whence art thou?" he asked, in desperation and 
bewilderment. 

But Jesus gave him no answer. His thoughts were 
with his Father, and all this medley of faces and of voices, 
of idle questions and of useless goings back and forth 
from judgment-hall to street-tribunal, seemed like the 



IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 379 

movements of figures in a dream. Only the lashes of the 
soldiers had seemed real. 

When Pilate saw that Jesus did not answer, he said 
to him: 

' ' Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that 
I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release 
thee?" 

Pilate could not understand a man, in such a strait as 
this man was in, who made no effort to save himself from 
death. 

"Thou couldst have no power at all against me," 
Jesus said, ' ' except it were given thee from above : there- 
fore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. ' ' 

Then Pilate went out still another time to the Jews, 
seeking yet for some means to save Jesus. But the Jews 
would not even listen to him. They cried: 

"If thou let this man go, thou art not Csesar's friend: 
whoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. ' ' 

In the whole history of the world there were never words 
spoken more contemptible than those. Their insincerity 
was worthy of the source from which they came — the cor- 
rupt and worldly Jewish priesthood, who hated Jesus be- 
cause his power over the people threatened their own fat 
privileges, and who now took advantage of the weakness 
of Csesar's governor, whose rule they themselves loathed 
and secretly execrated, making a weapon of their own 
pretended loyalty to the Eomans, in order to compass the 
death of a man who had never spoken one word against 
Caesar. 

The hatred and contempt with which the Christian 
world has regarded the Jews as a race is wrong. It was 
not the Jewish people who killed Jesus, it was the Jewish 
priesthood. Yet, in the face of this scene of hypocrisy, 
one can at least understand the Christian's prejudice 



380 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

against the Jew. We should do all we can to overcome 
that prejudice, because it is unfair ; the Jews of our day- 
did not kill Jesus. Yet there may be a racial justice, 
as well as an individual justice; and when contemplating 
this scene — even through the mists of the ages — we invol- 
untarily clench our hands with anger. To kill Jesus was 
bad enough, but to kill him through a pretended loyalty 
to Caesar was a climax of hypocrisy which stands with- 
out rival in the history of earth's abominations. 

The appeal to the hidden cowardice of the imperial 
governor served its ruthless purpose. Pilate foresaw the 
report that would be sent to Rome : that he had favoured 
a Jew who sought to usurp the power of the Emperor. 
The timid man was afraid of losing his office ! 

"Away with him! Crucify him! " still cried those 
terrible voices from below. And when Pilate, in one last 
effort, demanded: 

"Shall I crucify your king? " 

The chief priests answered : 

' ' We have no king but Csesar. ' ' 

When Pilate saw that all further effort to save Jesus 
was hopeless, and that he would be obliged to quell a riot 
if he persisted, he called for a basin of water. Then he 
washed his hands in the presence of the multitude, saying : 

"I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see 
ye to it. ' ' 

Then the priests and the scribes and the other Jews 
answered : 

"■His blood be upon us, and on our children.'''' 

And Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE DEATH OF JESUS 

I have now to tell you the saddest story ever told— 
the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. 

When Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, finally 
yielded to the demands of the Jews that Jesus should be 
put to death, he delivered the Master into the hands of 
his brutal Roman soldiers, with orders to crucify him. 
The death upon the cross was the most shameful of all 
deaths, according to Roman ideas, and it was reserved 
for slaves and highway robbers, and such other low-born 
malefactors as were not considered even good enough to 
die by the sword. That was why the high priests had 
demanded this death for Jesus. 

After beating him, and spitting upon him, and mock- 
ing him as the pretended "King of the Jews," dressed 
in a gorgeous robe and with a reed for a sceptre, the 
Roman soldiers clothed the Master again in his own gar- 
ments, and led him forth to be crucified. 

It was a sombre day. Already, before the hour of 
noon, dark clouds had gathered in the sky, shutting out 
the light of the sun. It seemed to the few faithful ones 
who watched from a distance, that Earth herself was in 
mourning for what she was obliged to witness of the cruelty 
of mankind. 

The Roman authorities had in their prison that morn- 
ing two thieves who wer-e condemned to crucifixion, and 
it was in company with these outcasts of society that Jesus 
381 



382 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

was to die. The soldiers led them out together — Jesus 
and the two thieves. 

There had been prepared in the courtyard of the prison, 
three rough crosses of wood, on which the prisoners were 
to be executed, and each of them was commanded to bear 
his own cross to Golgotha — the place selected for their 
death. 

The two thieves, strong and brutal men, had no diffi- 
culty in carrying their heavy crosses upon their bent 
backs ; but even from the start the soldiers saw that Jesus 
was hardly strong enough for that grim burden. The 
scourging he had already received had weakened him. 
Nevertheless, they laid the cross upon him, as they had 
laid the other two crosses upon the backs of the thieves. 
The procession started, Jesus in front, and the two thieves 
following behind. 

They had gone only a little way, a few rods perhaps, 
when Jesus stumbled and fell. The soldiers cursed. If 
Jesus could not carry his cross, what were they to do? 
The soldiers themselves would not carry it; that would 
compromise their dignity as Romans — the ruling race. 

When the Master staggered to his feet again, the four 
soldiers looked at him — not with pity, but with the toler- 
ant contempt of muscular men for one less physically 
strong than themselves. They held a consultation. 
Meanwhile the two thieves halted, their crosses still upon 
their backs. Even they were glad of a moment's rest. 

The soldiers saw a man walking toward them, one 
Simon, a Cyrenean, who was coming into Jerusalem from 
the country. They called out to him roughly: 

' : Simon! Come you and bear the cross of the King of 
the Jews." 

Casting one quick and pitying glance at the Master, 
who stood still and pallid at the head of the terrible pro- 



THE DEATH OF JESUS 383 

cession, Simon came forward without a word of protest, 
and lifting upon his strong shoulders the cross of Jesus, 
he started for Golgotha. The Master walked slowly beside 
Simon, while the noisy Roman soldiers brought up the 
rear, keeping ever in their sight the two thieves. 

The high priests, and the scribes, and the elders, grim 
and triumphant now, wagging their heads with satisfac- 
tion at the work they had accomplished, walked in front, 
turning now and then to feast their eyes upon the pale 
face of the man they hated. They would not have been 
content that Jesus should merely die in agony, they wanted 
to watch his death themselves. They yearned to behold 
him nailed to the infamous cross — he who had dared to 
say that he was the Messiah ! 

A throng of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of those 
who had come up to the city for the feast of the Passover, 
also followed. Some of them, especially those who had 
known Jesus in the north, were shocked and grieved; 
others were merely curious. There were in this crowd a 
number of persons who had been healed of their infirmi- 
ties by the Master, and these followed him wailing. 

There were also many women in the throng, and they 
cried and sobbed, calling to Jesus to save himself — for it 
seemed to them that one who had done so much for others 
could do something for himself. Some of these women, 
in their grief and excitement, came so near to Jesus that 
they almost touched him. The sight of their sorrow was 
pitiful to the Master, and he turned to them and said, in 
sad and moving tones : 

"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep 
for yourselves, and for your children. ' ' 

And he told them that the days were coming in which 
childless women would consider themselves blessed because 
they had no little ones to suffer; that the people in those 



384 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

times would call upon the mountains to fall on them, and 
the hills to cover them, so terribly would they be perse- 
cuted. 

When the women heard this, they only wailed the 
louder; and they beat their breasts, praying God to save 
Jesus from the Roman soldiers, and to save Jerusalem 
and the Jewish people from all their sorrows, which had 
never seemed so heavy as at this hour. And with every 
moment the sky grew darker, and a piercing wind blew 
from the hills, and dark birds of evil omen flew across 
the sky above their heads. 

But there was one woman who followed Jesus at this 
hour whose grief was voiceless — his mother. Mary uttered 
no cry as she saw her son led forth to die. The wailing 
of the other women she scarcely heard ; she did not see the 
black clouds which shut out the sky, nor the dark birds 
that flew overhead. She saw only the face of her son, as 
he turned and gazed at her. In his eyes was a far-away 
look, as if he were already with the Father whose messen- 
ger he was upon the earth. 

Since the hour when Mary had learned of her son's 
arrest, her spirit had been with his. She had come up to 
Jerusalem this last time, feeling that some terrible thing 
would happen there. For she had read the prophecies, 
and Jesus himself had prepared her for the trial that was 
in store. She had known that k Jesus must die at the 
hands of his enemies, as the prophets had foretold. But 
only now, when the hour of his suffering was come, did 
she realise all that it meant to be the mother of the Christ. 
When the annunciation angel had appeared to her in her 
little room so long ago, to tell her that she had been chosen 
by God to bring the Messiah into the world, he had not 
told her of this day. 

The tender ministrations of Mary Magdalene and of 



THE DEATH OF JESUS 385 

Salome, the mother of James and John, could bring no 
solace to her now. Even the thought of God's love could 
not comfort her — when her beloved son, whom she had 
gazed upon with wonder when he was a little baby, and 
had fled with into Egypt, and had seen grow into the 
splendid man whom thousands followed and worshipped, 
was going to die the horrible death of the cross. There 
are some griefs which words cannot describe, some scenes 
that no one dares to picture ; and each heart must search in 
its own deep places for a consciousness of what Mary felt. 

But that other Mary, she of Magdala, who had been a 
sinner, and who afterward became a saint, followed her 
Master with tears and heartbroken cries. He had believed 
in her when no one else in all the world had known that 
she was good. He had freed her from the seven devils of 
as many sins, and had placed her in the company of his 
disciples, where all were pure and good, and where the 
dream of the kingdom of heaven had driven away all de- 
sire for the splendour of the kingdoms of this world. To 
this Mary it seemed as if God Himself were to disappear 
from the earth with the passing away of Jesus. He had 
told her of the Comforter — the Holy Spirit — whom he 
would send when he was gone, even as he had told his 
men disciples ; but she did not think of that now. Mary 
Magdalene had seen crucifixions in Jerusalem before, and 
she could feel already in her own hands and feet the cruel 
nails which soon would pierce the hands and feet of her 
Master. 

And Salome, who walked with the mother and with 
Mary Magdalene, wept and beat her breast. She who had 
asked Jesus to grant that her two sons might sit, the one 
on his right hand, and the other on his left in the king- 
dom of heaven, had now forgotten even those two loved 
sons. She had seen the face of John in the distance, as 



386 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

he, too, followed the Master to Golgotha; but Salome did 
not even beckon to him. She thought of nothing but 
Jesus, who had been so good to her. 

They came to the place that was called Golgotha, which 
means "a skull." It was a bare and desolate hill, out- 
side Jerusalem, but near the walls of the city. 

The Roman soldiers commanded a halt. The three 
heavy crosses slipped from the shoulders of the two thieves 
and Simon of Cyrene. The hour was come. The sol- 
diers first lifted the crosses into place, and drove them 
securely into the ground. They were low crosses, shaped 
in the form of the letter T. When a man was to be cruci- 
fied, he was lifted up and nailed to this instrument of tor- 
ture, and as he hung there, his feet were raised only a 
little way above the ground. 

When the crosses were in place, the soldiers offered 
to the three condemned men a highly intoxicating drink, 
of vinegar and gall. This was intended to dull their 
sensibilities, that they might not suffer more than was 
necessary. The two thieves drank the vinegar and gall; 
but when a soldier raised the cup to the lips of Jesus, he 
would not drink of it. He preferred to die with his mind 
clear, to go into the immediate presence of his Father 
with soul and spirit free. 

The Gospels do not tell us whether Jesus was nailed to 
the cross before the two thieves, or after them. If he saw 
them suffer first, it only made his martyrdom more terri- 
ble, because of his great pity for mankind. We are told 
only that the thieves were crucified, one on the right hand 
of Jesus and the other on his left. 

The four soldiers came to Jesus. They took away his 
clothes. They lifted him upon the cross. They drove 
sharp nails through his hands, and sharp nails through 
his feet. His blood dripped down to the ground. 



THE DEATH OF JESUS 387 

Jesus did not cry out; but as the soldiers drove the 
nails through his tender flesh, he raised his eyes to heaven 
and uttered the most sublime words ever spoken : 

' ' Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they 
do." 

For nearly nineteen hundred years those words have 
rung in the ears of all those who have tried to live like 
Jesus. They only can understand them who have been 
betrayed and tortured, in body or in mind. We may not 
be able to comprehend all that was in the heart of Jesus 
as he uttered that prayer ; but we can remember it when 
some one makes us suffer. And it may be that when any 
one is cruel beyond our comprehension, as were those 
soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross, it is always because, 
as the Master said, they know not what they do. For if 
they fully realised the cruelty of their action, they could 
not do it. It seems to us that the spirit of revenge which 
burns in lesser minds would be stricken powerless and 
ashamed, if the injured one in his hour of anger could 
call to mind that prayer : ' ' Father, forgive them ; for they 
know not what they do. ' ' 

The mother and the other women knelt at the foot of 
the cross. John also was there now. The groans of the 
crucified thieves were terrible to hear. The sky grew 
blacker and blacker, as if the clouds were anxious to shut 
out all light from Jerusalem and those who dwelt therein. 
The sobs of Mary Magdalene and of Salome were less piti- 
ful than the silence of the mother, as she knelt there 
watching her son. 

But the Roman soldiers were not thinking of the 
mother, nor even of the sufferings of the Master upon the 
cross. They were thinking of the garments of Jesus, 
which, according to the Roman custom, became the 
property of the soldiers who crucified him. They divided 



388 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

his smaller clothing into four lots, one for each soldier, 
and then they took up his coat. John tells us that it was 
a coat without seam, woven in one piece throughout. As 
a garment, it could belong only to one of the four soldiers, 
and they argued as to what they should do with it, each 
man desiring it for himself. Then one of them said: 
' ' Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it. " 
The other soldiers agreed, and sitting on the ground 
at the foot of the cross, they cast lots for the seamless coat 
of the crucified Master. The soldier who won the garment 
shouted in triumph, for greed could not even give place 
to the conclusion of their terrible business, but must come 
first. 

When they had finished the division of his garments, 
they put up on the cross above the head of Jesus a placard 
which Pontius Pilate had written in three languages, in 
Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek: 



JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING 
OF THE JEWS. 



Then the soldiers sat down again not far from the 
cross, and watched the Master. They laughed and joked 
among themselves, telling stories to pass the time. 

And the priests and scribes and elders, with other 
Jews, walked to and fro before the cross, wagging their 
heads at the Master and reviling him: 

"Thou that destroyest the Temple, and buildest it in 
three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come 
down from the cross. ' ' 

The chief priests said : 

"He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be 



THE DEATH OF JESUS 389 

the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, 
and we will believe him. " 

And others said : 

"He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he 
will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God." 

One of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus 
cast the same in his teeth, even silencing his groans to 
mock at the Master : 

"If thou be Christ, save thyself and us." 

But the other thief, stretching forward his head, and 
looking across the form of Jesus to that of his fellow male- 
factor, rebuked him, saying: 

' ' Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same 
condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the 
due reward of our deeds : but this man hath done nothing 
amiss." 

Then, with a look which made his pain-distorted face 
seem almost gentle, he turned to the Master who was 
hanging beside him, and said: 

"Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom." 

Jesus answered: 

"Verily I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt be with 
me in paradise. ' ' 

The second thief did not even groan for a time ; his 
mind was so absorbed that he hardly noticed the sting of 
the flies which lit upon his mangled hands. "To-day 
thou shalt be with me in paradise, ' ' he repeated to him- 
self. Was it possible? He thought of all the sins he 
had committed in his life, and was sincerely sorry for 
them. 

But there was one thing which troubled the Jews even 
now, when the Master whom they hated was crucified be- 
tween two thieves and was dying before their eyes. To 



390 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the triumph of evil there is always something lacking. 
That trouble was the inscription which Pontius Pilate had 
caused to be put up over the head of the Master : ' ' Jesus 
of Nazareth the King of the Jews." The chief priests 
went back into the city and sought the Koman governor, 
where he waited in that judgment hall which had now be- 
come more hateful to him than ever, because of the weight 
that was on his conscience. And the chief priests said 
to Pilate: 

' ' Write not, The King of the Jews ; but that he said, 
I am King of the Jews." 

This made Pilate angry. Were they not content, these 
terrible priests, when he had condemned and crucified an 
innocent man to satisfy their malice and their bigotry, 
but they must now come to him complaining of such a 
petty thing as an inscription? And he answered them, 
briefly and sharply: 

"What I have written I have written." 

And the chief priests, seeing that they could get noth- 
ing more out of the Roman governor, reluctantly went 
back to the scene of the crucifixion. 

To the mother and those other faithful souls who 
watched at the foot of the cross, the passing minutes 
seemed, endless. Darker and darker grew the sky. Mary 
Magdalene and Salome had wept until they could weep no 
more. It seemed to John that he had already become an 
old man, so tremulous was his whole body; yet he sup- 
ported with his arm the weary form of the mother of Jesus. 

The Master, looking down from the cross and seeing 
his mother with John, said to her: 

"Woman, behold thy son!" 

Then, to the pale-faced disciple, he said : 

' ' Behold thy mother ! ' ' 

The heart of John rushed forth in love for the stricken 



THE DEATH OF JESUS 391 

mother of the Master who so trusted him. Henceforth 
she should be indeed as his own mother, and he as a son 
to her. No more should she be homeless ; but he would 
take her to his own house and care for her as long as she 
should live. 

Jesus had now passed three hours in the torture of the 
cross. Though he had been nearly silent, he had suffered 
even more than the groaning thieves. It seemed to him 
that the Father in heaven had forgotten His son. And 
in his agony he cried: 

"Eli, Eli, lamasabachthani? — My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me? " 

This cry of her son was almost more than the mother 
could endure, and the tears of Mary Magdalene flowed 
afresh. The thought pierced their hearts that if he could 
really feel that God had forsaken him, how terribly must 
he suffer ! They gazed at his pale face in an agony of love 
and pity. 

But some of those who stood by, when they heard Jesus 
cry out, said : 

"This man calleth on Elias." 

Straightway one of them ran and took a sponge, and 
put it on a reed, and filled it with vinegar, and lifted it 
to the lips of Jesus as he hung upon the cross, that his 
thirst might be assuaged. For a burning thirst was one 
of the horrors of crucifixion. But others who stood by 
said to this kinder-hearted man : 

' ' Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to comfort 
him." 

When Jesus had received the vinegar, he cried again 
in a loud voice: 

"It is finished." 

Those who watched, saw his head fall forward, and 
they knew that he was dead. 



392 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The sublime and fearless spirit of Jesus had gone to 
rejoin the Father whom he worshipped. No longer would 
the dark world be lighted by his presence as a man among 
men; no longer would his smile and his voice bring hap- 
piness to those who were sad, nor his gentle touch ease 
the sufferings of those in bodily pain. The peaceful ways 
of Galilee would not see him anymore, nor the selfish city 
of Jerusalem be troubled by his lofty purity, which had 
been a reproach to its base selfishness. His disciples could 
no longer lean upon his breast, nor come to him for coun- 
sel. The labour of his life was finished, and the sweet- 
ness of it was now but a memory. 

But the death of pain which he had chosen to die was 
the final seal upon his immortality as an influence among 
men. The crown of thorns upon his head would there- 
after be a more royal emblem than the crowns of empire 
or the laurel wreaths of genius. Alone and unrivalled in 
the hearts of men, he would stand forever as marking the 
loftiest height to which humanity had reached or ever 
could reach. Forever the souls of men would turn to him 
as the still living Christ, the invisible and never-sleeping 
presence, whose love would be all-embracing, whose pity 
could reach even to the forgiveness of his torturers, whose 
understanding could embrace the highest and the lowest 
among human beings. The hearts of kings and of beggars 
would lean upon him, as his disciples had leaned; and 
his name would become the greatest power upon the lips 
of men, hushing into silence all thoughts and words un- 
worthy, calling to activity all aspirations which lead men 
toward the spiritual life — the life beyond the joys, of the 
world and beyond the shadows of the tomb. 

We are told in the Gospels that at the moment of the 
death of Jesus, the veil of the great Temple at Jerusalem 
was rent from the top to the bottom — though no hand 



THE DEATH OF JESUS 393 

touched it; that an earthquake shook the ground, and that 
great rocks were rent. 

When the soldiers who had killed Jesus felt the ground 
shaken by the earthquake, they were frightened. And 
they said to one another, with pallid faces : 

"Truly this was a righteous man!" 

And those others who had come out from Jerusalem to 
see the crucifixion were appalled by the earthquake and 
by the darkness which covered the land. Their hearts 
quaked with fear, and they smote their breasts, and re- 
turned into the city. Even those who had mocked Jesus 
upon the cross were now silent, smitten dumb by a power 
they could not comprehend. We may suppose that men 
came running out to Golgotha from the city, to tell their 
friends in frightened whispers that the Temple veil was 
rent — though no hand had touched it. 

After the earthquake a chill wind blew from the neigh- 
bouring hills, and other men came running, to say that 
they had seen the ghosts of the dead walking in Jerusalem. 
It was an hour of cold and terror; and still that life- 
less and silently accusing figure hung there upon the 
cross. 

As this was the evening of the great Jewish Passover, 
the most sacred festival in the year, the Jews had besought 
Pontius Pilate that their feast might not be troubled by 
the presence of those men upon the crosses ; but that their 
legs might be broken, their death hastened, and their 
bodies taken away. And Pilate sent soldiers out from 
the city to do this grim work. 

When they came to the two thieves they broke their 
legs, to hasten their death; but as Jesus seemed to be 
dead already, they did not break his legs. Instead, one 
of the soldiers took a spear and pierced the side of Jesus, 
and when they saw that blood and water ran from the 



394 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

wound, they knew that the Master was dead. As the old 
prophets had foretold, not a bone of him was broken. 

Now among the lesser disciples of Jesus, there was a 
rich man, Joseph of Arimathsea, who awaited the kingdom 
of heaven. When this man saw that Jesus was dead, he 
went to Pontius Pilate and asked that the body might be 
delivered to him. It was in accordance with the Roman 
law that the body of an executed man should be given to 
his friends, if they made that demand. Otherwise it was 
buried in a dishonoured place, set apart for the interment 
of dead felons. 

During the life of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathsea had not 
proclaimed his discii)leship, because he was afraid of the 
Jews ; but when he saw the Master hanging there upon the 
cross, his love triumphed over the desire for honours 
among his own people, and he boldly sought the Roman 
governor, not caring who should know. 

When Pontius Pilate was told that Jesus was already 
dead, at first he did not believe it. Men often lived for 
days upon the cross — sometimes until they died of starva- 
tion. Three hours seemed a short time. And Pilate 
called the centurion, who was in charge of the soldiers 
who had performed the execution, and demanded to know 
if the Master from Nazareth were really dead. When the 
centurion declared that it was true, Pilate gave permission 
that Joseph of Arimathsea should remove the body. 

Nicodemus, who at first had come to the Master by 
night, was another highly placed friend of Jesus. When 
he learned that Pilate had given the body to Joseph, he 
brought a great quantity of myrrh and aloes for embalm- 
ing. And Joseph, when he returned to Golgotha, carried 
with him a clean linen sheet. 

Tragedy brings out the hidden courage or the cow- 
ardice of men. These two, Nicodemus and Joseph of 






THE DEATH OF JESUS 395 

Arimathsea, who had loved and served Jesus in secret, and 
had often saddened his heart by their lack of bravery, 
now when their courage and loyalty could do him no real 
good, were both courageous and loyal. They stood a* the 
foot of the cross, with John and Mary the mother, with 
Salome and Mary Magdalene, and probably also a few of 
the other disciples, and prepared to take down the body 
of their Master. 

The descent from the cross has been the subject of many 
a masterpiece of painting, and words cannot picture it as 
lines and colours can. These friends drew out the cruel 
nails which had held the hands and feet of Jesus, and 
taking his body gently in their arms, they laid it upon 
the ground. One writer tells us that John hid the nails, 
that the sight of them might not cause keener suffering 
to the mother. Another writer says that as they removed 
the nails and the bleeding hands of Jesus hung down, the 
mother took them in her own, and kissed them yearningly. 
In a picture by Rubens, the great Flemish painter, the 
mother gently removes a thorn from the wounded brow of 
her dead son. These little touches of human tenderness 
move the heart to tears. 

Poor mother! Be comforted now, for your son is not 
suffering any more. His spirit has escaped from the 
cruelty of the world, and that brief agony upon the cross 
has bought for him an eternity of love which his mere 
teachings, however beautiful, could never have stirred in 
the slow hearts of men. 

With tender hands, half hidden from their own sight 
by falling tears, these friends wrapped the body of Jesus 
in the linen sheet, with the sweet-smelling myrrh and 
aloes. There was a garden near Golgotha, in which was 
a tomb newly cut out of the rock, and to this resting-place 
they bore the lifeless form of him whom they had loved. 



396 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The night was drawing on, it was near the hour of the 
Passover, and they were obliged to work quickly. 

When they had laid the body in the tomb, they rolled 
a great stone to the mouth of it; then the men went sadly 
away. But Mary Magdalene and one of the other women 
remained, sitting over against the sepulchre. 

As the twilight deepened into night, and as the few 
travellers upon the road hurried toward Jerusalem, they 
saw those two motionless figures, watching in silence at 
the door of the tomb. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

THE RESURRECTION 

After Jesus had been laid in the sepulchre, the chief 
priests and the Pharisees met together to congratulate 
one another upon his death. Their hearts were lighter 
than they had been for many months. So long as Jesus 
lived, they had felt that their position and their influence 
among the people were in constant danger; but now that 
he was dead, and safely put away in the tomb, they could 
breathe freely. Yet even now there was one thing which 
made them anxious — for they were hard to satisfy, these 
priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem, as Pontius Pilate had 
already learned to his great cost. And the next morning 
after the death of Jesus they sought the Roman governor 
again, and said to him : 

"Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he 
was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Com- 
mand therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the 
third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him 
away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead : 
so the last error shall be worse than the first. ' ' 

Pilate had slept badly the previous night, and there 
were dark circles around his eyes this morning. Though 
he had not actually seen Jesus upon the cross, all the long 
night his imagination had pictured him there, and a rest- 
less conscience had made his luxurious bed seem like a 
nest of thistles. His wife, too, had troubled him with 
the narration of her strange dream, about which she had 
397 



398 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

sent a messenger to tell him the day before, while he sat 
in the hall of judgment. So that now, when the priests 
and Pharisees came to him with their unnecessary request, 
Pilate answered them very briefly : 

' ' Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye 
can. ' ' 

Thus armed with the authority of the governor, the 
Jews left the council-chamber, and went again to the sep- 
ulchre where Jesus had been laid. And they sealed the 
stone which formed the door of the tomb, and set watch- 
men to guard it day and night. 

Then they went back to their homes, to enjoy the Sab- 
bath, telling each other with a great wagging of heads that 
the promised resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth had now 
been made impossible. 

The friends of Jesus spent that Sabbath in sadness and 
in prayer. The world was very different for them, now 
that Jesus was no more. They were bewildered. The 
events of the last two days had left them exhausted in 
body and in spirit. They had already learned of the 
suicide of Judas Iscariot, which added another horror to 
their burdened hearts; for though they now knew that 
Judas was a traitor, yet he had been their companion for 
a long time, and they could not think unmoved of his 
tragic end. 

The disciples had been widely scattered after the arrest 
of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and only a few of 
them had even seen the crucifixion; but on the Sabbath 
day they had come together again, and had found tem- 
porary shelter in the house of a sympathiser in Jerusalem. 

They were still afraid for their own lives, because they 
did not know how far the hatred of the Jews would carry 
them. The priests, having caused the Master to be killed, 
might now desire to do away with his disciples, that there 



THE RESURRECTION 399 

should be no one left upon the earth to carry on the work 
of Jesus. As the men from Galilee huddled together in 
that room in Jerusalem, they made fast the door, that no 
one should come and take them unawares. 

All that Sabbath day John had been obliged to answer 
the questions of his fellow disciples, who had not been 
with Jesus at the crucifixion, or had only seen it from a 
distance. 

But when they asked him what they should do in the 
future, John could not tell them, for he was but little 
wiser than they. Simon Peter was very silent, for he was 
still bowed with shame for that scene in the hall of the 
high priest's palace, when he had thrice denied his Mas- 
ter. Others might forgive him, but he could not forgive 
himself. 

Mary Magdalene was heartbroken. She had watched 
the night before at the sepulchre of Jesus, and yet she 
could not rest this day. "The Master is dead! The 
Master is dead!" kept ringing in her bewildered brain. 
What was there left in life for her? she asked herself over 
and over. Where could she go for comfort? 

Early in the morning of the first day of the week, she 
went back to the sepulchre of Jesus, taking with her one 
of the other women. It seemed to her now that the tomb 
of the Master was the only home she had in all the world, 
and she wished that she herself were dead. 

As Mary came near to the sepulchre, the earth shook 
beneath her feet. She saw a great angel come down from 
heaven and roll away the stone from the door of the sepul- 
chre. His countenance was like the lightning, and his 
garments were white as snow. 

The watchmen whom the priests had left to guard the 
tomb were terrified at the appearance of the angel. In 
their fear they fell to the ground like dead men. 



400 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The angel said to Mary and her companion : 

"Fear ye not: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which 
was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. 
Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly 
and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, 
behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye 
see him: lo, I have told you." 

The two women looked into the tomb and saw that it 
was empty — the body of Jesus was gone. Then they went 
quickly away, their hearts full of fear and wonder. And 
Mary ran back into the city and found John and Peter; 
and she said to them, her eyes aflame with excite- 
ment: 

' ' They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, 
and we know not where they have laid him." For even 
now she did not understand that he was really arisen from 
the dead. 

Then Peter and John started running for the tomb. 
But John was younger and swifter of foot than his friend, 
and he reached there first. Stooping down, he looked 
into the tomb, and saw the linen garments lying on the 
rock floor. But he did not go in. 

When Peter came, he went into the sepulchre, and saw 
the linen garments lying there, and the napkin, that had 
been about the Master's head, not lying with the linen 
clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 

John also went into the tomb now ; and though he did 
not know the scripture which prophesied that Jesus 
should rise again from the dead, yet when he saw the 
empty sepulchre and the discarded linen garments, he be- 
lieved that Christ was risen. 

Peter and John did not see the angel which had ap- 
peared to Mary Magdalene, and when they had satisfied 
themselves that the sepulchre was really empty, they went 



THE RESURRECTION 401 

back together into the city to the house where they were 
staying. 

But Mary Magdalene remained at the tomb, weeping. 
She did not understand what had happened. She was 
confused with fear, and hope, and sorrow. So long as 
she had known that the form of the Master was in the 
sepulchre, that melancholy spot had been the focus of all 
her thoughts; but now that he was there no more, it 
seemed to Mary that she herself had no longer an abiding 
place upon the earth. 

As she wept, she stooped down and looked into the 
sepulchre, and there she saw two other angels, one sitting 
at the head, and the other at the foot of the place where 
Jesus had lain. Their faces were shining and beautiful, 
and joy seemed to surround them. They said to Mary: 

"Woman, why weepest thou? " 

And Mary answered : 

"Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know 
not where they have laid him. " 

When Mary had said this, she turned herself back, 
away from the sepulchre, and there before her in the grey 
dawnlight she saw the form of a man. And he said to 
her: 

"Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekestthou? " 

Mary supposed this figure to be that of the gardener, 
for the sepulchre was in a garden, and she answered him: 

"Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where 
thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." 

'•'•Mary ! " said the thrilling voice of the Master. 

And then she recognised him. Her heart leaped, and 
she was filled with a joy so great that it hurt her. 

"Kabboni, Master!" she cried, and throwing herself 
upon the ground before him, she would have clasped and 
kissed his feet. But he said gently: 



402 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my 
Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I as- 
cend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, 
and your God. ' ' 

Then he vanished from her sight, but the joy of his 
presence remained with Mary. 

"He is risen! He is risen! " she cried over and over 
in her happiness. The world was no longer a desolate 
place, and the air seemed full of unseen angels. The 
little birds that sang in the dawn were like the choristers 
of heaven. 

Mary ran back into the city. She went to the house 
where the men disciples were, and told them that she had 
seen the risen Jesus, that he had spoken to her, and she 
repeated his words. But the disciples, though they be- 
lieved in Mary, did not fully believe her story. They 
thought that grief and sleeplessness had unhinged her 
brain. 

In the palace of the high priest there was excitement 
and anxiety. The watchmen at the sepulchre, who had 
been smitten senseless with terror at the appearance of the 
angel, had hurried back into the city, and had sought the 
chief priests, to whom they had told their story. 

The priests immediately called a council of the elders, 
to consider what should be done. They were all of one 
mind that the soldiers of the watch must be bribed to say 
that the disciples of Jesus had come by night, while they 
slept, and had stolen away the body. And the priests 
gave money to the soldiers of the watch, instructing them 
carefully as to what they should tell the people, and 
promising them that if the story came to the ears of Pon- 
tius Pilate, the governor, the priests would themselves 
persuade him that what the watchmen said was true. 

So the soldiers took the money which the priests offered 



THE RESURRECTION 403 

them, and immediately went about the city telling every 
one whom they met that the disciples of Jesus had come 
to the sepulchre by night, and had stolen away the body 
of the crucified man. 

That night the disciples were assembled in their 
room in Jerusalem. The doors were still fastened, for 
fear of the Jews. Though they had not really believed 
the story of Mary Magdalene that she had seen the risen 
Christ that morning and that he had talked with her, yet 
they had been much excited by her own belief in the truth 
of what she said. Could it be possible? they asked them- 
selves and one another. As the body of the Master was no 
longer in the tomb, where was it? And where was he? 
A strange restlessness possessed the disciples. The last 
few days had been so full of terrible events, and the next 
few days were so uncertain ! They knew not what an hour 
might bring forth. They had heard of the rumours which 
the soldiers of the watch had spread about the city — that 
the disciples of Jesus had stolen his body from the tomb. 
Would the high priests now seek to punish them for what 
they had not done? 

They sat bowed forward, staring into space. Not a 
sound disturbed the stillness of the chamber. The one 
lamp cast flickering shadows upon the wall. 

Suddenly they felt the thrilling presence of something 
invisible. Not a man had moved from his place, the 
door was still securely fastened, and yet they felt that 
something had entered the room. They looked up quickly, 
their hearts pounding in their breasts. 

Jesus stood there among them. His eyes shone with 
a light that was not of this earth. 

"Peace be unto you," he said. 

The disciples were terrified, for they thought that they 



404 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

saw a spirit. And they huddled together, staring at Jesus 
with wide eyes of fear. But the Master said to them, in 
his own calm voice: 

"Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in 
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I 
myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh 
and bones, as ye see me have." 

And he stretched out to them his pierced hands, and 
showed them his torn feet, and his wounded side. And 
while they yet believed not for joy at seeing him again, 
and wondered how such a thing could really be, he said 
to them : 

"Have ye here any meat?" 

And they gave him a piece of a boiled fish, and a piece 
of honeycomb; and he took the food and ate before them. 
Then they were less afraid, for it seemed to them now that 
it was really the Master, and not his spirit which stood 
there. And he said to them : 

"These are the words which I spake unto you, while I 
was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which 
were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and 
in the psalms, concerning me. ' ' 

Then by his power he opened their understanding, 
and made them realise that all the terrible things which 
they had witnessed and suffered had been a part of God's 
plan regarding His Son, that the heart of the world might 
be touched. And Jesus said: 

"Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to 
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day : and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in 
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And 
ye are witnesses of these things." 

Then he told them that he sent the promise of his 
Father unto them — the Comforter, the Holy Spirit — but 



THE RESURRECTION 405 

that they should tarry in Jerusalem a while longer, until 
they should receive power from on high. And he said : 

"Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even 
so send I you. ' ' 

When he had spoken these words, he breathed on them, 
one man after another, saying: 

' ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost ! ' ' 

As they felt his breath, it seemed as if a new spirit 
entered into them — a spirit of power and understanding. 
They were changed in some mysterious way. They were 
still themselves, and yet they seemed also to be a part of 
him. Their eyes shone with a more brilliant light, for 
they had indeed received the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said 
to them : 

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature. 

"He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; 
but he that believeth not shall be damned. 

"And these signs shall follow them that believe: In 
my name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak with 
new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they 
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall 
lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. ' ' 

Then Jesus moved toward the door of the chamber, 
beckoning his disciples to follow. When he had first ap- 
peared, it had seemed to them that they were dreaming; 
but now they were keenly alert, and full of vivid life. 
For had not Jesus breathed upon them the power of the 
Holy Spirit? They felt strong enough to move the world. 

The Master led them out of the city, talking sweetly 
along the way. He did not lead them to Golgotha, nor 
yet to the great Temple, but to Bethany, on the hill be- 
yond the city — Bethany, the little town where he had been 
so happy with his friends in the days that were no more. 



406 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Of all the incidents recorded in the Gospels, there is none 
more touching than this. Even in his new life, Jesus 
had not forgotten the affections of the old. 

As they looked at him in the soft starlight, he seemed 
exactly the same as he had been before. And the disci- 
ples marvelled. 

When they reached Bethany, and stood again among 
the olive-trees, Jesus lifted up his hands and blessed them 
— and then he disappeared from their sight. 

The quiet stars still shone overhead, the breeze blew 
softly through the olive-trees, but the Master was no longer 
there. They peered into the shadows of the night, but 
saw nothing. Then with hearts athrill with hope, and 
lips hushed with awe, they turned again toward Jerusalem 
and entered into the city by the way they had come. 

Thomas, that disciple who was always doubtful of 
what he had not seen with his own eyes, was not with 
the others that night. And when the disciples told him 
afterward that they had seen the Lord, that Jesus had 
eaten before them, had shown them his wounded hands 
and feet and side, had breathed upon them with the Holy 
Spirit, and had walked with them to Bethany, Thomas 
did not believe. He said : 

"Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, 
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust 
my hand into his side, I will not believe. ' ' 

But eight days later Thomas himself saw Jesus. The 
disciples, after the Master had breathed upon them with 
the Holy Spirit, had ceased to be afraid of the Jews, and 
they went about the city freely, even teaching in the 
Temple. And one night when they were all assembled in 
their chamber in Jerusalem, and Thomas with them, 
Jesus came again and stood in the room, saying: 



THE RESURRECTION 407 

' ' Peace be unto you. ' ' 

Then said he to Thomas : 

' ' Eeach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and, 
be not faithless, but believing." 

"My Lord and my God!" answered Thomas, for all 
his doubts were flown away. He, too, had beheld the 
risen Christ, and was now ready for his mission of apostle- 
ship. 

Jesus said to him : 

"Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast be- 
lieved : blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed. ' ' 

Many other things Jesus did in the presence of his dis- 
ciples during the forty days that he remained near them 
in his risen body. After they had left Jerusalem, and 
had gone back into the north, they saw him again in 
Galilee, at the Lake of Tiberias. 

Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two 
of the other disciples, had been fishing at night from a 
boat on the lake, but they had caught nothing. And in 
the morning Jesus stood upon the shore. 

"My children," he said, "have ye any meat?" 

They answered him, ' ' No. ' ' 

He told them to cast the fish-net from the right side 
of the boat, and they should find fishes; and when they 
had cast the net as Jesus told them, they were not able 
to raise it out of the water for the multitude they had 
caught. 

The other disciples who were on the shore came to help 
them, and when they had dragged the net ashore, they 
counted one hundred and fifty-three great fishes — yet the 
net was not broken. 



408 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

And they found on the shore a fire of coals, and fish 
was laid thereon and bread, and Jesus said to them : 

' ' Come and dine. ' ' 

And he gave them bread and fish, and they all ate to- 
gether there on the shore of the lake. The disciples were 
filled with joy to see the Master again, and their hearts 
were touched because he had helped them in one of the 
little and material ways of life. There was never any 
thing distant about Jesus. His intimacy with those who 
loved him was the secret of his greatest power. 

After they had eaten together, Jesus said to Simon 
Peter: 

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than 
these?" 

"Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee," answered 
Peter. 

Jesus said to him: 

"Feed my lambs." 

And Jesus said to Peter a second time: 

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" 

"Yea, Lord," answered Peter again, "thou knowest 
that I love thee. ' ' 

"Feed my sheep," replied Jesus. 

Then he said to Peter a third time: 

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? " 

Peter was grieved because Jesus had asked him three 
times if he loved him. Did not the Master understand 
his heart? And Peter said: 

' ' Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I 
love thee. ' ' 

With a radiant smile Jesus said to him again: 

1 ' Feed my sheep. ' ' Then he added : 

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast 
young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou 



THE RESURRECTION 409 

wouldest: but when thou Bhalt be old, thou shalt stretch 
forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry 
thee whither thou wouldest not. ' ' 

By this Jesus meant Peter to understand by what death 
he should die. And when the Master had spoken thus, 
he said to Peter: 

"Follow me." 

Peter looked at John, who was near Jesus at that 
moment, and he asked : 

"Lord, and what shall this man do ? " 

"If I will that he tarry till I come," replied Jesus, 
"what is that to thee? Follow thou me. " 

From that day the saying went abroad among the fol- 
lowers of Jesus that John should not die until the second 
coming of the Christ. But Jesus had not really said so. 

During this talk with Peter, the Master had not re- 
ferred by word or look to the disciple's denial of him that 
terrible night in the hall of the high priest's palace. It 
was Jesus who taught us to forgive our friends — even their 
disloyalty. 

The Master now said to the disciples who were as- 
sembled there on the shore of the lake : 

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world. ' ' 

When he had spoken these words, and while they still 
gazed at him, he was lifted up into heaven, and a cloud 
received him out of their sight. 

And from that hour, as long as they lived, the dis- 
ciples went about the world, preaching the religion of 



410 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Jesus. Almost everywhere they met with persecution, 
and many of them died the death of martyrs ; but their 
faith never faltered. It is owing to their labours, and to 
the labours of Paul, who later became one of their number, 
that the world was Christianised, and that millions on 
millions of men and women came to love Jesus almost as 
much as his disciples loved him. 

For he was always to them the Living Christ, the friend 
more intimate than father or mother, the invisible com- 
panion ready at all times and seasons to come at the call 
of those who needed his love. And so he has remained 
until this day — the Living Christ. 



THE END 



OCT 2tt 1911 



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